Thuram: The End of an Era?

February 15th, 2007 | by: Laurie | View Comments

I’ll ‘fess up here. Lilian Thuram is my favorite current Bleu. I’m madly in love with his instincts on the field, where he and William Gallas created a virtually impenetrable center defense and were instrumental in getting France to the World Cup final. And I love his social activism off the field. (More on that in a later post.)

But here’s a sad fact of life. Lilian is 35. How many thirty-five-year-old players (aside from keepers) do we know? In the aftermath of last week’s France-Argentina game, where two brand new central defenders did a better-than-fair job of holding their own, there have been a lot of articles with Lilian looking regretfully toward the time when he’ll no longer be playing. “I have to consider that I am 35 years of age and that the Euros are very, very far away,” Thuram told Canal Plus. (Reprinted in Eurosport.) “Also, at this moment, I am not playing much in Barcelona. If that continues, I will not be in fit shape by the Euros.”

Lilian is back in training this week after being out since before the first of the year with a calf injury. That’s good news. But he hasn’t been able to break into the starting lineup for Barcelona since leaving Juventus last year after Juve’s match-fixing relegation to Serie B. Thuram is concerned that without regular playing time, he’ll lose his edge. And if that happens?

“When you are no longer [playing] at the highest level, it is necessary to let your place go. It is not complicated. One should not cling.”

Spoken with class by a player who’s nothing but class.

But I’m still hoping he’ll make it to Euro ‘08.