Bixente Lizarazu is considered by many as the greatest left back in the history of French football. His record, rich in particular of a World Cup, one euro and a Champions League, or its 97 selections in the French team plead for him. However, a teenager, the native of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, did not seem intended for such a career. Consequence of its small size.
“The small side, too frail, obviously I had it violently at the Bordeaux Girondins but I had almost my whole life, because I was always the pitchoune as they say in the Basque Country. In the southwest, Pitchoune is the little one and I was always that for my friends ”, He said to start the Podcast Winning Minds.
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“But when I arrived at the Girondins training center, it's different because there, it's the elite already. There are the best players who are recruited for the training center. I really struggled. I arrived at the age of 13 and between 13 and 15 years old, I was really physiologically late compared to others ”he continued, adding that he was close to having to make a cross on his dreams and leave the training center: “And unfortunately, there is an educator who one day told me 'it is not even worth hoping to become a professional footballer. You don't have the capacity for that. It was a first shock. My parents were there and it was a fairly painful moment. But it didn't slow me down. »»
Bixente Lizarazu did more than the others
And the former Bordeaux then decided to redouble their efforts by winning additional physical sessions to strengthen. “I did more than the others”he remembered without knowing if these negative appreciations on his small size had served as a click.
“This is also the advantage when you have a defect, it is that you develop other qualities,” he nevertheless struck. Whenever I played against bigger or stronger guys than me, I had only one idea in mind, it was to make them (laughs). In Germany in particular, the players were very large, and to tell me that the big one of 1.95m, we were going to find ourselves on contact … (smile). It remained like a kind of obsession, a match in the match, and therefore a permanent motivation. »»
