As France prepare to start their fight to keep the World Cup on Tuesday against Australia, Le Parisien decided to sit down with Adil Rami and talk about the current squad.
The defender, who plays for ESTAC Troyes in France these days, was a surprise inclusion in the 2018 squad that went to Russia and won the tournament, meaning he knows some of the players in Didier Deschamps’ current crop of players.
Among those is Hugo Lloris, who is the captain at both Tottenham and for France, and is likely to be playing the final big tournament of his career.
There is still a chance he could feature in the next Euros, but that entirely depends on him and what he does in the future, with his time at Spurs more than likely coming to an end.
He is contracted to Tottenham until the end of next season, and the London side will need to make a choice of either letting him go for free then or sell him a year early to someone.
Still, he will put all that to one side to focus on the current task at hand, which is to try and ensure France win back to back World Cups.
As for his role in the squad and relationship with Rami, the 36-year-old said: “The first word that comes to me is friend. He was born on December 26th, I was born on December 27th, and we met several times on our birthdays on the Côte d’Azur. He’s an example of longevity and professionalism.
“He doesn’t speak often, but, precisely, when he does, everyone listens. He is the absolute pillar. As a person, he is poised and mature. As soon as he sees me, he smirks. He likes me to make him laugh, and on the pitch, you know you’re calm when you have a guy like that behind your back.”
Hugo Lloris signed for Tottenham all the way back in 2012, when the Premier League side spent €12.6m to get him from Lyon.
Since then, he has made an impressive 437 appearances for Spurs, conceding 490 goals and keeping 148 clean sheets.
