In football, a ball set back allows you to breathe, to escape the pressure of the opposing defense, to give yourself a little air. Exception to the rule, the withdrawal of Noël Le Graët at the head of the French Football Federation (FFF) is not enough to calm his detractors, especially since his lunar exit on Zinédine Zidane. Among them, Bixente Lizarazu, world champion in 1998 converted into a consultant. The former side of the Blues was not kind to NLG in an interview with The Team. Where it is, among other things, a question of respect for the legend Zizou.
“I said to myself that he (Le Graët) had freaked out. When you are at the head of the FFF, you are already the guarantor of the values of the French team, so you cannot respond with so much contempt about the one who is, with Platoche, the greatest player in France. history of the Blues. Having won three Champions Leagues with Real Madrid, he is also a legitimate candidate to be coach of the Blues. »
Deschamps won the right to continue but…
Bixente Lizarazu also questions the duration of Didier Deschamps’ new contract and the bilateral nature of the agreement at the origin of its extension. “Since he took the France team, the jersey is respected, he won a World Cup, the results are very positive. […] Clearly, he has earned the right to continue the adventure. But the continuity, it should have been two more years and we see after the Euro. It seemed healthier to me, especially since Didier will already have had a twelve-year lease at the head of the Blues. It’s a lot for a locker room, especially since we have a possible successor. The fact that Noël Le Graët does not even address the subject with his executive committee, does not raise the question of the duration, of the possible candidates, that poses a problem. »
The whole thing being to wonder if all this is really surprising on the part of a monarch who was already trying to place an heir on the sly at the head of the federation.