By Guillaume K. | Sports journalist
The question of retirement is central in high-level sport, since athletes must relearn how to live after having spent years locked in a bubble. And according to Adil Rami, this situation is far from simple.
When high-level athletes talk about retirement, they often compare it to a first death… Indeed, after having spent years with a single goal in mind, after having led their life based on training and travel, they find themselves left to their own devices faced with an existential question: what to do?
For some, retirement from sports is an opportunity to concentrate fully and completely on their family. For others, it's the time to make up for lost time and compensate for all the sacrifices made to maintain good physical shape. This is why it is not uncommon to see footballers gain a few kilos, for example.
Adil Rami talks about life after retirement
Visiting the popular show “Popcorn” on Twitch, French world champion Adil Rami looked back on the end of his sporting career and the changes in his life. He confirms that it is a plunge into an immense void, and that you have to know how to impose personal discipline on yourself so as not to completely lose your footing.
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When you stop, you no longer have anyone to take care of you, it's crazy. You are completely lost. Even a hamburger you can eat knowing that you don't have to weigh it afterwards. […] And then, adrenaline is a big drug. I was lost without it. When you retire you can enjoy yourself, but former footballers are condemned to playing sport for life now.
If you stop doing it you swell, you gain weight and it's complicated. I force myself during my streams to take one or two hours to go do my sport. After football I had to get my adrenaline back, and the way for me was boxing. You start at 0, when you enter the locker room no one calculates you.
Retirement is not easy to manage for footballers… Overnight, Adil Rami found himself with the possibility of eating what he wanted, when he wanted, without having to step on the scale. He quickly decided that it was necessary to impose sports sessions on himself, and above all, he found alternatives to replace the adrenaline of matches, his greatest drug.
How to live without the adrenaline of major meetings and without the constraints of high level? This is the question retiring footballers must answer. And according to Adil Rami, it's not simple.
