Philippe Mexès was only 20 years old when he was called up for the French team for the first time. While the Blues are trying to move forward after a completely failed 2002 World Cup, Jacques Santini summons him for a trip to Malta. An inevitably intimidating first for Auxerre.
“My first selection was in Cyprus (Editor's note: in Malta, October 22, 2002) and when I return, there is Zidane on the field. I don't totally realize it. It's a dream that I'm realizing, so I was paralyzed. I don't know where to put myself, I don't know who I am. I wonder what I'm doing here”he said in the Kampo podcast.
And the rest will be just as complicated, the native of Toulouse having to wait until 2012 and Laurent Blanc to be installed as central hinge. This is due to tough competition including Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, William Gallas but also… Raymond Domenech. Like many other players of the time, Philippe Mexès has very bad memories of the former French coach, whom he had already worked with at the Espoirs.
“I didn’t want to go there when there was Raymond”
“I wanted to come home, I didn’t want to come to the French team. Already in Hopes, I didn't want to go there when there was Raymond, he explained. I didn't feel good in this team. I had the impression that he took me because he had to take me in fact, because people said 'this is the future Laurent Blanc and whatnot'. But he didn't want to take me. And I didn't feel comfortable, even in Hopes. »
“It was the outside who denigrated our group because we got along well and you are attacked because you are from the next generation, because before there was Zidane, there is a generation of crazy people all the same: Henry, Trézéguet…”, continued Philippe Mexès, admitting to having faked injuries so as not to come: “I was acting injured. I said, 'It hurts here.' No, I wasn't well. »
And this discomfort was even evident in full preparation for the 2006 World Cup. So much so that he was relieved to be among the six players excluded by Raymond Domenech. “There was someone better than me. I had nothing to do there. I don't actually believe it, he whispered. I didn't feel well. »And this probably has to do with the coach. “I couldn't see him, whether in the Espoirs or in the French team, I never liked him, he said. I didn't feel well. 'The ram doesn't play with the scorpion, the scorpion doesn't play with the bull…' For me, it's not football, we're not in the theater. »
