One too many injuries happened this summer for Raphaël Varane, without warning. “On a harmless action”, as he explains in a long interview with The Teamhis last as a footballer. “We wonder how I got injured, there is no contact, no twisting. » The convalescence period is estimated at several weeks, not a tragedy in itself, but the former French international is tired of fighting against his body. Above all, the affected knee is this time the one that has held the house together for almost ten years, its crutch, its beacon in the dark night. “The left knee has compensated for the right knee since 2013. It is through it that I found balance in the imbalance. So, if my left knee tells me it’s fed up, I have to listen to it. »
Raphaël Varane stops early, but he started early. His meteoric rise at Lens led him to Real Madrid, the rest is known. He enjoyed glory at club level and with the French team. And like every player he left feathers. Normal in the world of high-level sport. But the former central defender joins the voices who believe that limits have been crossed. “A lot of players stay silent, because when we ask for things for others, football tends to think that we are asking for them for ourselves. But that’s not true. When I talk about mental health, it’s not to play less, for me, it’s because football is in overdrive and the machine is going to break down. »
Varane sees himself more president than coach
The young retiree has ideas for this football that he loves so much. He would like not to see the protected species that are creative players completely extinct. “There are more physical profiles in all positions, and there are fewer unbalancing players, who are all in the same register, one-on-one players who play sideways. » To move the lines, Varane sees himself “more as president than as coach, for the moment”. As a first experience, he will join the development committee of the Como club, where his football career ended, and where the new one is just beginning.
