Legendary goalkeeper for the French team, Fabien Barthez did not leave Jérôme Rothen with good memories. The latter gave it another layer.
The enmity between Jérôme Rothen and Fabien Barthez is not a discovery for those who have followed the news of the France team over the years. The former Paris Saint-Germain player had already spoken on the subject in 2016, on RMC. “ Maybe my head didn’t come back to Fabien, that can happen, he then declared. When you say hello once and the guy doesn’t even look at you, despite being a world champion, after a while you have to respect everyone and your teammates. On arrival, we no longer even calculated. » Nearly seven years later, Rothen put a coin back into the machine.
On the same media, the player who passed through ESTAC mentioned the 2006 World Cup. And therefore a certain Fabien Barthez. “ In 2006, there was very clearly a difference in level between Grégory Coupet and Fabien Barthez. At the time, Barthez played because there had been the return of Zinedine Zidane, he wanted it to be Fabien Barthez, he had more confidence in himself. We are not going to repeat the history of preparation for the World Cup. When Grégory Coupet left, he did not leave by chance. » As for whether Raymond Domenech, coach of the Blues at the time, had had his say, Jérôme Rothen cut the discussions short: “ He didn’t decide anything.“
“He was afraid of being cold”
And the former player turned radio presenter once again tackled the “divine bald”, recalling an episode in the preparation of the Blues where the French goalkeeper had not gone on an excursion to a glacier with his comrades: “ He didn’t do the same exercises as the others. He was afraid of being cold. » One thing is certain, the temperature of relations between the two men still seems below zero and is not expected to heat up any time soon.
