Thuram: The End of an Era?

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.