It’s no surprise given he’s 31 years old, but Franck Ribery says this trip to the World Cup with France will be his last.
Les Blues have found themselves in the midst of some turmoil recently, and Ribery says there’s a lot of weight on their shoulders.
“It will be my last World Cup,” Ribery told French radio station RTL. “We have to go there to achieve something, to try to win the World Cup, quite simply.”
Ribery did say, however, that he will not be retiring from international play right away, and has targeted the Euro 2016 tournament in France as something he should be up for.
This trip to Brazil will mark his third World Cup, marking his first with a second-place finish in 2006 when he scored against Spain and narrowly lost to Italy on penalties in the final.
The squad fell fast in 2010, as inner turmoil led to a paltry one point (and one goal) in the group stage, leading to manager Raymond Domenech’s firing. Ribery was said to have fought with teammates, but he dismissed those reports during interviews in the tournament’s aftermath.
France has seen its fair share of intra-squad fighting this time around, although not (yet?) to the level of 2010. Samir Nasri was shockingly left out of the squad, leading to the player’s girlfriend to go on an expletive-laden Twitter tirade, which manager Didier Deschamps counterpunched with a lawsuit.
