World champion in 1998 with the France team and considered one of the best goalkeepers of his time, Fabien Barthez gave an exclusive interview to Europe 1 Sport. The 50-year-old from Ariège, a racing driver since 2008, talks about football news and more particularly that of goalkeepers, but also about his new projects.
New passion and new role: “We discover, with age, different passions”
“My first passion will always remain football, and the role of goalkeeper above all. My other passion, motorsport, I reach the end after 14 years. So we discover, with age, different passions, different desires. My new thing is mountain biking, for example. Going out, going for walks in the mountains. It’s stuff like that. And afterwards, always following football and especially the role of the goalkeeper, which bothers me a little. This Covid story allowed me to embark on a new role as goalkeeper adviser. And for that, I too went to seek advice from coaches, young people in the middle… And it also allowed me to call a person who for me has always been a mentor, has always been my model: Joël Bats [ancien gardien de l’équipe de France entre 1983 et 1989 et entraîneur des gardiens de l’Olympique Lyonnais entre 2000 et 2017, nldr]
Joël, throughout my career, I think we must have talked to each other every time we met. And we talked to each other for three or four minutes. There was always this thing, this fluidity, as if we had known each other forever, as if we had always understood each other. And for the past two years, we’ve been talking because I was asking for advice on my new role. What did he think of it, how did he see it. And we are both really in the same approach. Even when I was in the France team with Laurent Blanc, I never called him for Hugo (Lloris) because I didn’t feel the need and he didn’t.
With Joël, it’s fusion: we exchanged a lot. Recently, he released a quite educational book which is very interesting, especially for the role of parents, because that is what hurts young players and young talents the most.”
Evolution of the goalkeeper position: “All goalkeepers are alike”
“With Joël, we talked a lot about the evolution of the position. And the evolution does not mean that it is better. I do not agree and he does not either. years or the game on foot. Knowing all the same that it is a rule that has existed since 1993. And there, now, we are ecstatic in front of a goalkeeper who is good with his feet. Joël could have played now. I was not a trailblazer. It was the rule that made me a trailblazer because the coaches hated it. Above all, you shouldn’t pass the goalkeepers.
Why has the position changed? Because from the 2010s, we started playing like Spain. We start from behind. Now we are at a point where we have introduced a new rule of six meters, we can start again inside the six meters. We rely too much on the kicking game and we really forget the essential role. Already, it is a question of individualities. Now all guardians look alike.
All goalkeepers are trained. They act the same way on the same actions. There is no ideal goalkeeper. A goalkeeper on a pitch is not like an outfield player and regardless of how he plays. Afterwards, whether it’s football, whether it’s basketball, whether it’s rugby, whether it’s tennis, the game is the eye. It’s the anticipation and it’s the reading of the game. And all of that brings you the placement and behind. And to put all this in value, you need the speed of the legs. As its name suggests, it is there to keep a goal. First of all. You have to try to be as pragmatic as possible. He’s not there to be number 10. He’s not there to do 40-meter cross-sections.
A team is each a well-defined role and each has its place. The goalkeeper is there to recover any mistakes. It should not be forgotten. Because when the ball arrives in front of the goal, it is a multitude of errors. Except that he, behind, there is a white line. It’s a position that has never been fully recognized.”
Working with Laurent Blanc in the future: “The door is open”
“With Laurent, we were supposed to work together in Paris when he was at PSG (from 2013 to 2016). But that didn’t happen because the leaders who were in place didn’t want it. But the door is open. For goalkeepers, everything is open. But after that, I don’t hide from you that I don’t need to work either to exchange on this or that goalkeeper or to decide who will play, who will not play.”
The alternation at PSG between Keylor Navas and Gianluigi Donnarumma: “One thing I will never do”
“I would never have endured it. Because me, I never endured being number 2 and I never endured finishing second. So that’s what we call having a state of competitive spirit. I don’t know what they think about it, but it’s the message that sends you: I trust you and you I don’t trust you. And automation is not about doing 6 against 6 or once a week or 11 against 11. And the benchmarks, how do you do for the benchmarks? The long balls, the long trajectories… Everyone does as they want. Me, it’s something that I I will never do because I like goalkeepers. Above all, we are here to give him confidence.
So the more playing time you have, the more confidence you gain. This is where you progress. How do you get 150% from the player? Is that like that, by alternating, the two are not at 80% each? There is a difference between 80 and 100%. Afterwards, who is the stronger of the two… There is one who ends his career in one or two years and the other who is fresh, who still has a huge margin for improvement. But can you get 100% from every player?”
His benchmarks in the France team: “In the national team, you are not there to learn”
“The France team is something else again. Because when you go to the national team, you’re not there to learn. We don’t have time, we’re not there to learn. That’s also part of the qualities of a very, very high level player. And as in any job, the one who adapts as quickly as possible is the one who makes the difference. So we are here to adapt. as quickly as possible. But indeed, with Laurent, with Marcel (Desailly) or Tutu (Thuram) we had our automatisms, even if we yelled at each other the whole match. With Thuram, we yelled at each other because he didn’t want to pass to me. I would ask him for passes when play was blocked for me to turn. He wouldn’t give me the ball.”
The club he preferred: “What happens off the pitch makes the difference”
“I had a blast everywhere. Because for me, a playing career starts at 15, 20. After you are 20, 25, 30, 35… There are different evolutions in your life as a player. man. Because it’s above all your life as a man. That’s it, that’s all that will make the difference. Why have there been great talents who have never broken through? Because what happens off the pitch makes the difference. And that’s the hardest part. Because you grow as a man.”
Aware of having been the best goalkeeper in the world: “You know it, but you never believe it”
“Never. You know you’re the best. You know it, but you never believe it. That kind of humility that makes you always put yourself a little below, allows you behind to be much more focused. But when I happened to believe that I was the best, I completely failed. The first match after the World Cup that we played was Iceland (September 5, 1998, 1-1 It’s a great classic, it’s human! And that’s where you think you’re the best. Me, I’m going out, I’m 15 meters behind. There, I thought I was the best in the world. I had just been voted the best goalkeeper in the world and I was world champion. Look what that did!”
“He will be the future goalkeeper of the France team. But there is another aspect that must be taken into account, it is in the head. What happens when you pass another milestone. where the differences are, it’s not so much on a 40-meter crossbar or a dive, or this or that. Somehow everyone knows how to do it at this level. When you pass this course, how do you manage everything? the environment? All the different pressures? Are you going to change your game? And we must not forget that you play with the greatest players. In club, you are never with the greatest players of each nation . There, you have to put yourself at the level of all the greatest.”
Steve Mandanda’s situation: “He has to work for him”
“It’s part of a player’s career. I got kicked out of Manchester United after three years. It’s part of a player’s career. There’s a lot going on in today’s football, which means that sometimes a player does not go specifically for his qualities. He goes to play because there is something else behind it. I don’t know what’s going on in Steve’s head. I hope he works for him “Because above all, he has to work for him. When he’s going to play, you’ll have to be ready. That’s what I experienced for six months in Manchester. Alex Ferguson said to me: ‘You won’t play for Manchester again’. I played again six months later. I trained on my own, every day. I gave myself up on Sundays. Alex Ferguson had provided me with a goalkeeping coach and I worked every day You have to be very selfish, really work only for yourself.”