Saint-Etienne (AFP)
The contract of AS Saint-Etienne goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier was broken by his club, ASSE announced Monday after several months of sidelining from the professional group for the 34-year-old French international goalkeeper.
"ASSE regrets to have come to this decision, made ineluctable by the attitude of the player who undermined the institution", wrote the club in a statement about its former captain, whose contract was ending initially in June 2021.
The goalkeeper is therefore now free to engage wherever he wishes.
Ruffier has been in dispute with ASSE since February 23, 2020 and the decision of general manager Claude Puel to put him to rest for the Ligue 1 match against Reims (1-1).
He hasn't played since.
The doorman, who had one of the highest salaries in the Greens, was fired on November 19 for leaving an individual training session prematurely.
At the end of July, he had already been laid off six days for "act of insubordination", a delay in training that he had contested.
A conciliation had been put in place between the player and his club in front of the Professional Football League at the end of 2020, but it failed.
The Basque goalkeeper has played 383 matches in the Saint-Etienne jersey since his arrival in summer 2011 from Monaco.
He is thus the one who played the most with the Greens in the first division, ahead of the legendary Ivan Curkovic.
© 2021 AFP