Two months after announcing his retirement, Samuel Umtiti opened his voice. Disabled by a chronic injury to his left knee since 2018, and the world coronation of the French team he was so involved in, the former center back ended his great career on September 15, at the age of 31.
Event guests Next Generation on RMC this Friday, he spoke in depth about the struggles he encountered during his final years as a footballer. “Looking back, I know that mentally I was very, very, very affected by that,” he admits, even talking about “depression.”
The former Lyon, who only played a total of 88 games between the 2018 World Cup final and his retirement announcement in September 2025, said he suffered greatly due to uncertainty about his injury and rumors circulating about his physical fragility.
“I don’t even leave my house”
“There were so many things… I didn’t even leave the house,” he said. “People don’t know all that. They say to each other: After all, if he doesn’t show anything on the network, it means he doesn’t do anything. But I work a lot, I do two or three training sessions a day, I have preparation… It’s incredible what I do, I don’t even necessarily have a life, I don’t see my friends,” admitted Umtiti.
“When I read everything that was reported in the media, I said to myself: How can they think like that of me, I’m not like that, it’s not money that drives me. I just want to play football,” regretted the world champion who was once accused of not wanting to leave Barca to earn his salary until his contract expired, when he would no longer play.
Between surgery and rehabilitation, the centre-back tried everything to get back to his best level, but his left knee never let him settle down, despite a good season on loan at Lecce, in 2022-2023.
“You can’t be incompetent like that.”
“I read a book about the problems I was having,” he recalled at RMC. “My inflammation was so bad that I had to change my diet. I stopped eating meat, fish, my diet was extraordinary,” he explained.
Although he still harbors some “resentments” – “some people don’t necessarily do what they’re supposed to do and for me, when you’re a professional, you can’t be incompetent like that” – Umtiti closed his remarks by admitting to being “at peace” with himself.
Now a consultant for DAZN, the former France international (31 caps) has a clear idea of his retraining project, as he is currently preparing to gain his coaching diploma by undertaking a three-month internship at Paris FC.
