Goalkeeper of the French team which won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, Fabien Barthez remained in the memory of certain French executives. Former doctor for the Blues, Jean-Marcel Ferret shared an anecdote about him.
With Fabien Barthez and a few other illustrious players of the time, the French football team wrote some of its most beautiful pages. Under the Aimé Jacquet era first with the first world title for the Blues won during the 1998 World Cup. Then under the leadership of Roger Lemerre, when France followed up two years later with a final success at the Euro 2000. Determining in his position, Fabien Barthez nonetheless left an impression on the minds of certain elements of the French group, for his way of being off the field. Jean-Marcel Ferret opened up about it.
Doctor of the Blues for more than a decade (1993-2004), the latter delivered a tasty anecdote about the former French goalkeeper. This Sunday in the columns of The Team, Jean-Marcel Ferret returned to an episode that occurred at the very end of 1997. One evening when Fabien Barthez disappeared. “ In Tignes, on the day of the Christmas doping control in 1997, he was drawn, but we did not know where he was. We searched for him for hours… he was diving under the frozen lake!“
“He was elsewhere compared to reality”
And this is not the only time the former OM and Manchester United player stood out to the doctor. “ Did I really treat Fabien Barthez once? Not sure… What a character! On the day of the match, he was extraordinarily relaxed. ‘I’m not well… I have jitters… the skin on my buttocks is moving!’it’s him, before the penalties in the quarter-final against Italy in 1998. » However, Jean-Marcel Ferret was not fooled. “ It was false carelessness. The day before, what stress. We had the impression that he was playing his match the day before, and that he was, in general, somewhere else compared to reality.“
