Maxime Médard, 35, announced on his Instagram account that he will retire at the end of the season. Trained at the club, the Stade Toulousain full-back spent his entire career with the “Rouge et Noir”, including 18 seasons as a professional.
It is a page for Stade Toulousain and French rugby that turns this Friday, April 29. Maxime Médard, trained at the “Rouge et Noir” club and to which he will remain loyal throughout his career, has made the decision to end his career at the end of the season. He announces it on his social networks.
In a video posted on his Instagram and Twitter accounts, the 35-year-old thanked his educators, volunteers, teammates and everyone he met at Stade Toulousain. “The Stadium would not be what it is without all the people who work for the proper functioning of this club. And I also have a strong thought for the volunteers and the supporters”, underlines Maxime Médard in his video.
In 18 seasons, Maxime Médard has played 359 games, at the time of writing, and won the Top14 five times, in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2019 and 2021, and three European Cups in 2005, 2010 and 2021 He will be called up to the France team 63 times, notably participating in two World Cups, including the final lost in 2011.
In the wake of the announcement, Stade Toulousain thanked their player for the years of success shared together.
There to accompany
Last August, at the end of a season haloed by the Top 14 / European Cup double, The Midi Dispatch asked Maxime Médard about his future: “I’m just here to support” he then projected. “The youngsters have a little bottle now. I can intervene if I feel that we are scattered but they have their heads on their shoulders, they are experienced. They need me, I need them. He you have to find the right place and when things are well said, there is no need to add to it.”
And to the question: “Will this be your last season?” Answer: “In any case, my contract ends this season. I don’t worry. I don’t want to tell myself that it’s over. Maybe, in six months, I’ll tell you “I ‘stop, I’m burnt’… We’ll see. There is family life but also this moment of retraining, where you have rugby but not only. It stimulates me, I resumed training, I try to to be active in relation to my post-career. You have to be aware that the new generation is stronger and that you also have to leave.”