‘I was not unhappy’ – Player opens up on his recent decision to leave Spurs
Hugo Lloris has spoken about how his Tottenham career ended and his final few months at the North London club.
Lloris is now seeing out the final years of his career at Los Angeles FC in Major League Soccer, with the goalkeeper moving stateside back in January after an outstanding career in Europe.
The goalkeeper, who came through the Nice academy and made a name for himself at Lyon, went on to become a Tottenham and a Premier League legend, spending 12 years with the Lilywhites.
Not only was Lloris one of the best in the world in his position for large parts of his career but he also offered a lot from a leadership perspective, captaining both Spurs and France.
However, the 37-year-old’s time at Tottenham did not have a fairytale ending as he missed the last chunk of the 2022-23 season due to injury and was subsequently deemed surplus to requirements by Ange Postecoglou when he arrived through the door last summer.
Speaking about the injuries that proved the final nail in the coffin for his Spurs career, Lloris told Le Parisien: “The first time, after I received a knock during a match against Manchester City, I felt my right knee twisting: tear of the external ligament, eight weeks off, and the second, just a few weeks after my return to the field, in April 2023, a tendon in my hip. This injury, initially psychological, marked the end of my season.”
Many were left surprised when Lloris did not depart Tottenham last summer despite being relegated to third choice.
Hugo Lloris was never unhappy at Tottenham
The goalkeeper eventually got the move he wanted in January and he revealed that he used the final few months in London to focus on other priorities outside the game.
He added: “Those eight months without playing were complicated. Since I’ve been playing football – and I started at the age of six – I’ve been thinking about the upcoming match, planning for the next goal. When all this collapses, we no longer know how to make sense of physical effort: why hurt ourselves? Why push yourself to come back?
“However, I was not unhappy. I took the opportunity to spend more time with my family and it did me good. I was able to celebrate my father’s 70th birthday and go see my brother play in Le Havre, against PSG. It would have been impossible if I had been on a team sheet at Tottenham.
“One day, I know, football will stop for me. I will perhaps miss the adrenaline because it is a drug, but I am not afraid of this ‘little death’ as they call it in the sporting world. There is an afterlife, and I can’t wait to know it too.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Lloris certainly deserved a better end to his Tottenham career, given the outstanding service he gave to the club but things do not always work out that way in football.
Nevertheless, the Frenchman will be remembered as one of the biggest legends in the club’s recent history.
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