While Paul Pogba is preparing to make his comeback in France, other stars of the Blues have very badly experienced the reunion with France. Bixente Lizarazu, who had signed in Marseille, after leaving Bayern is one of the best examples.
Starting from Le Havre at just 16 to join Manchester United, Paul Pogba decided to return to France to try to relaunch his career. The tricolor midfielder has indeed engaged with AS Monaco for the next two seasons and the challenge appears immense when he has hardly played for three years due to repeated physical seeds and especially his suspension for doping.
And the challenge appears all the greater since some old glories of the Blues have not always been at the party when they decided to find France. To this end, the case of Bixente Lizarazu is enlightening. The memory is painful for the Basque who did not wish to evoke the subject when it was asked by the team. The tricolor world champion will have only passed through the sky and white. Arrived at the end of the contract at Bayern Munich, where he won everything, and eager, at 34, to return to France, the Basque side seemed to be seduced on his arrival in the Marseille city, considering “The exciting challenge” and the “Challenge to its measure”.
“If I had stayed, I would have put it on”
Yet after only six months, the former Bordeaux decided to leave OM. As a result of a disappointing start to the season that pushes José Anigo, the coach, to resign after two poor performance against Paris and Ajaccio, as well as Jean-Christophe Bouchet, the president. And while Philippe Troussier arrives on the bench, Bixente Lizarazu quickly knows that the Olympian adventure is already coming to an end.
“I really appreciated the period with José Anigo. Afterwards, I had a problem with a person ”, he said after the end of his career, adding: “Forty-eight hours after arriving, during the Caen course, I understood that I would not play. »» But more than the nonexistent playing time, it is the methods of Philippe Troussier who do not pass. “If I had stayed, I would have put it on, he explained. I told myself that I couldn’t get there, because I had never felt it in my life. It was better to stop bullshit and move on. If there had not been this coach, the adventure could have continued in Marseille. »»
Six months therefore and then leaves. Bixente Lizarazu finally decides to return to Bayern Munich, where he quickly found his rank in the left corridor of the Bavarian defense.“I understood that our operating methods, to Philippe Troussier and to myself, were not compatible. It was more than that, it was an incompatibility of characters that resulted in verbal clashes. In fact, we had nothing in common ”,
he justifies.
