End clap for the "Kaiser".
At almost 40 years old, which he will celebrate next April, Franck Ribéry should soon announce his career.
It was the local media
Il Mattino
, based in the Naples region where the Frenchman's current club, US Salernitana, is located, which announced it this Friday morning, information since confirmed by several Italian and French media.
Bothered by knee problems since his arrival at the
Granata
in the fall of 2021, the Frenchman had been absent again since mid-August.
He who had played 60 minutes with the captain's armband around his arm in the first match of the season, August 7 for the first round of the Italian Cup, would therefore have preferred to say stop.
While he has yet to officially declare that he has hung up his boots, the announcement could come very soon, while
Il Mattino
suggests that he could stay at Salernitana at least until the end of the season in a role as a club ambassador before embarking on the course to become a coach.
A Bayern legend and a near-Ballon d'Or
Before landing in this small club promoted in the summer of 2021 and, therefore, ending his career there, Franck Ribéry will have written some of the most beautiful pages of French football.
Trained at US Boulogne, he was discovered in Metz then, after a short stint in Turkey, at Galatasaray, made a name for himself on the international scene with Olympique de Marseille.
It was under the OM jersey that he joined the France team, and played in his first World Cup, which he left his mark on in 2006. In a not always peaceful relationship with the Blues, he will have worn in one of the worst periods in its history, it will accumulate a total of 81 caps (16 goals).
It is especially at Bayern Munich that he will become a legend.
On the front of the Bavarian club's attack, he forms a formidable pair of wingers with his counterpart on the right side, the Dutchman Arjen Robben.
In 12 seasons (2007-2019), he won 22 trophies including 9 German champion titles and a Champions League, in 2013, where his football was close to the sublime and was not deprived of a well-deserved Ballon d'Or. only because of the heyday of a certain Cristiano Ronaldo-Lionel Messi duo.
That year, he was voted "UEFA player of the year".
For four seasons, he had therefore been playing in Italy, where Fiorentina had hosted him for two seasons (50 games, 5 goals, 9 assists) before he joined the Salerno club.
History will remember that his last game was against José Mourinho's AS Roma (1-0 defeat on August 14).