France and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris announced his retirement from international football on Monday.
The 36-year-old made 145 appearances for Les Bleus after having made his debut for them in 2008. He was part of the France squad that won the World Cup in 2018.
In his last outing, the Tottenham star saw Argentina overcome France on penalty shootouts to win the World Cup in December.
L’Equipe covered an in-depth interview with the Spurs captain and one of the questions thrown at him was whether he is tired of penalty shootouts.
“In general, I have not been very successful in my career in this exercise (0 shots on goal saved in the French team out of 9 suffered). That didn’t stop me from saving important penalties, and I won some penalty shootouts, but I lost a lot, too,” he said.
“There are goalkeepers who are more successful than others. In fact, there are things I don’t know how to do. Fooling around in goal, ostensibly destabilising the opponent by playing with the limit, I don’t know how to do it. I am too rational, too honest to go into that area. I don’t know how to win like that, even if I really didn’t want to lose like that, either…”
In the World Cup final, Lloris came up against his Tottenham teammate, Cristian Romero. The stopper was left furious after he was elbowed by the centre-back.
Asked about this incident, the Frenchman explained: “It’s in the game, he’s pushed towards me, he drags his elbow, and it’s the pain that causes my anger. But let’s move on…”
“We explain, and we move on. He’s a boy I really like, he’s my neighbour, by the way, and since he arrived, we’ve been spending a lot of time together. But we talked about it, yes,” Lloris explained.
On Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who was instrumental for Argentina in the shootout, Lloris stressed: “We must salute the victory of Argentina, and say that he was decisive. Afterwards, during the celebration, he was judged enough like that, I don’t need to add to it. During the session itself, he used everything he could to destabilise.”
Lloris is of the belief the international retirement could help him focus only on Tottenham. He has set his sights on winning silverware in the near future.
“I want to continue to perform, to live this sport as I have always done, and maybe this decision will give me more freshness in the club, I don’t know. But I want to live these years to come to the fullest, and to the highest,” he said.
“In the next four or five months, with Tottenham, I want to finish in the top 4 of the Premier League, to do something strong in the Champions League, in the FA Cup too. I don’t want to stop, because I love football too much, and physically I feel good, which is the most important. I would like a trophy again.
“In fact, I have a lot of “vice” in my career: vice-champion of France, vice-champion of Europe, in selection and in club, vice-champion of England, vice-world champion. But it also means that we have gone high, very high. Winning a final is the best thing, but losing a final is not given to everyone.”
