Christophe Dugarry celebrates his 52th birthday this March 24 and also celebrates the 20th anniversary of his retirement as a player. The 98 world champion was only 32 years old when he hung up the crampons in February 2005. Zinédine Zidane's longtime friend, the number 10 star of the French team, “Duga” was pointed out as being the pistonned of the 22 group of Aimé Jacquet for the World Cup in France. And for good reason, during the season preceding the big hexagonal meeting, the attacker formed with the Girondins de Bordeaux (then led by a certain Aimé Jacquet …) had only scored one goal in 26 matches with Barça then OM!
Extremely combative player, both offensively and defensively, Dugarry has become a executive of Roger Lemerre and made the essential left winger of the Blues winners of Euro 2000. The Bordelais then tried his chance at Birmingham City, where he left good memories in two seasons, before spending a short year in Qatar, playing 30 Sc. His golden exile in Doha suddenly dismissed “Duga” of the game. Solicited by Benfica, he did not have concrete offers from French clubs. He then made a terrible decision.
Dugarry: “I am not made for this football”
He tells in The team at the time: “I wanted to stay in France. Some clubs were interested in me, but we cannot say that it was the stampede. (…) I am half surprised. I belong to the old generation. Today, you have to be smooth and transparent. (…) Everyone is afraid of pressure. Everyone opens the umbrella. It makes me smile and frankly, that's why I'm happy to stop. I am not made for this football. I no longer correspond to him “. The turbulent kid had become a young thirties frustrated.
In selection, Dugarry had logically stopped after the 2002 catastrophic World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In the absence of “Zizou” in the first two matches due to a muscle injury, Roger Lemerre had aligned Youri Djorkaeff in 10 behind David Trezeguet, with Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henry on the wings, during the inaugural defeat against Senegal (1-0), before replacing “the snake” with Johan Micoud during the Pite Uruguay. Zidane returned to the eleven against Denmark, with Dugarry on his left (Henry being suspended), but the champions of the title watch definitively sank (2-0 defeat and elimination).
