First match in Ligue 1 at just 19 years old, first selection for the French team at 21 and captain of the Blues at 23: Hugo Lloris was a monster of precocity. However, the young Nice player suffered a setback when he was just discovering the professional group of OGC Nice. Fourth goalkeeper and therefore limited to extras, the Riviera goalkeeper preferred to return to the reserve team.
“ The hardest thing in these moments is to remain patient because you feel that you have the ability to impose yourself but there is still a hierarchy. At that time, there were already three goalkeepers in place: Damien Gregorini, Bruno Valencony and Hilaire Munoz. And I came behind, he explained to the Gym website. What was planned was for me to return to the pros. In their idea, they wanted to take me back with the reserve and bring me up gradually. Except that I didn’t want to wait. »
“I needed to play”
“I wanted to prepare with the pros. I started with them but after a while it was so frustrating not being able to participate in the games that I left to train with the reserves for a few months before returning to the pro group in January. he continued, adding: “But it was part of my personality. I felt the need to play, the need to belong to a team and this was not necessarily the case in pro where I had more the impression of being the youngest who must be patient and learn. »
“ I spent a lot of time with Enrique Pionetti who was the goalkeeping coach. And it was important because in my training, I didn’t spend a lot of time in specific exercises and he was at the Italian school so he gave me a lot of technical support,
he explained again. But at one point, I needed to play because training without being able to participate in reduced games, oppositions and having to stand on the sidelines is a bit frustrating. I decided and went back down on my own. Gernoth Rohr didn’t like it too much but I think that’s understandable. »
