Defeat hurts.
Fans feel it and they want players at the club they support to feel it too. Stories of stars going out for meals and drinks, seemingly without a care in the world, after big losses have been told countless times, and usually bring rage from supporters.
Hugo Lloris isn’t likely to fall into that bracket.
The Tottenham goalkeeper has explained to L’Equipe that whilst he tries to keep work and home life separate, he’s still to fully learn how to deal with defeat.
He told the French newspaper: “I was already unbearable at the age of five when I returned from the park if I had lost and in a good mood if I had won the little beginner’s tournaments. Even during my high school years, if I had lost at the weekend in the Championnat, I could still be in a very bad mood when I arrived on Monday.”
Lloris has learned to not keep it all inside as much as he once did, and becoming a father has helped that process: “When I look at my daughters in the eye, I tell myself that there are more important things. I have always hated defeat but I think there is some ways in which it manifests itself more.
“Me, I interiorise a lot, I manage to control myself before the eyes of others. In time, I have evolved, I communicate more than before. When I was young, I did not open my mouth if I lost. From eighteen to twenty-eight, I could not say a word. Today, I still do not accept defeat, but I can talk.”
Given the type of character Lloris is, his drink driving offence last August was not only all the more surprising for the public, but likely also more difficult to deal with for the Tottenham player.
L’Equipe had to ask about it, and the goalkeeper responded: “I did not need that. It is more of an accident that serves as a lesson. There was a lot of resonance, but you have to stay out of it all. I made a mistake, I assumed it and I still assume it, because twenty months without a license… now I have all the taxi apps.”
During the current international break, France are set to face Moldova and Iceland in qualifying for Euro 2020 and Hugo Lloris, national captain, is expected to play.
