Yesterday the surprise was immense, today the words are strong. A few hours after announcing his international retirement, Raphaël Varane, 29, gave his first interview as a newly retired French team to Canal + to explain the reason for such a decision. In an interview to be published in full on Sunday in the Canal Football Club, and of which the channel published a first sequence on social networks, the Manchester United defender talks about his fatigue and castigates the increasingly overloaded schedules imposed on footballers.
“I gave it my all, physically and psychologically,” he said straight away. But the very high level is a washing machine, we play all the time, we never stop. We have overloaded schedules, we play non-stop. At the moment, I feel a little suffocated and that the player is eating the man. »
Will this call be heard? Nothing is less sure
Whether Didier Deschamps explained that this decision did not make him happy, he will also quickly understand that nothing can be done with a man who no longer feels the strength or the motivation. We would like Varane’s choice and what he denounces through him to be heard by those who are behind this football overdose, but we know very well that for these people, the player’s health matters less than TV rights.