Pelé, Gascoigne, Zidane, Ronaldinho or even Messi… The love story between football superstars and their national team is sometimes written in dotted lines.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's return to the Swedish squad at the age of 39, announced on Tuesday March 16, is the latest example.
• King Pelé consecrated again on his return
Winner of the 1958 World Cup (in Sweden) and 1962 (in Chile), Pelé lives a nightmare during the 1966 World Cup in England, victim of blows from his opponents and lax refereeing.
He then decides to focus on his Santos club and no longer wears the selection jersey for two years.
Gordon Banks was nicknamed "Banks of England" because he was as secure as the Bank of England, "the Bank of England".
His spectacular stop against Pelé at the 1970 World Cup will be remembered.
The Brazilian said: "I scored a goal, but Banks stopped it."
pic.twitter.com/a5W0ug678c
- Football News (@ActuFoot_) February 12, 2019
But the World Cup-1970 approached and the football legend found the national team under the orders of his former partner Mario Zagallo.
Pelé will be sparkling in Mexico.
He scored 4 goals to bring Brazil their third world title.
He retired internationally a year later, during a match against Yugoslavia at the Maracana.
• Paul Gascoigne: between escapades, injuries and genius
Called for the selection for the first time in 1988 by Bobby Robson, Gascoigne will mark English football by his escapades, but also by his tears in the semi-final of the World Cup-1990 during the defeat on penalties against Germany.
Robson leaves the selection and Gascoigne is dismissed by his successor Graham Taylor.
He returns for a friendly match but is injured and misses Euro-1992.
He was injured again in 1994 and was absent for a year and a half.
At Euro-1996 at home, against the Scottish neighbor, he scored an anthology goal by chaining a blow from the sombrero and striking.
He celebrates lying on the ground, his arms outstretched, sprayed by his teammates, a reference to tabloid photos showing him in a similar position in an alcoholic context.
The Daily Mirror turns his jacket over: "'Gazza' is not a big drunken fool. In fact, he is a football genius," he wrote in an apologetic column passed down to posterity.
Paul Gascoigne vs Scotland, Euro '96.
pic.twitter.com/4ULkuYNtwZ
- 90s Football (@ 90sfootball) January 25, 2021
In 1997, he helped qualify England for the 1998 World Cup in France, but following a new scandal - the tabloids showed him eating a kebab in the middle of the night with a DJ friend -, Glenn Hoddle does not retain him for the world tournament.
In rage, "Gazza" ransacked the coach's room and never again wore the English jersey.
• Zinédine Zidane: a whim, the perfect comeback
A year after the announcement of his international retirement in the wake of an elimination in the quarterfinals of Euro-2004, Zidane announces his return to the Blues.
Under the orders of Raymond Domenech, "Zizou" led France to the final of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but ended his extraordinary career with a famous header against the Italian Marco Materazzi which earned him an exclusion.
# Germany2006 14 years ago to the day.
#France 🇫🇷 & #Italia 🇮🇹 compete in an epic final!
👍 last match #WorldCup Zidane 👏 Zidane's
panenka
👎 🐏 Zidane's red card
👏 Italia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/0vzciyOdVC
- World cup spirit (@worldcupspirits) July 9, 2020
France, which had opened the scoring on a penalty of "ZZ", inclines on penalties and the adventure in Blue of the child of La Castellane ends with a taste of unfinished business.
• Lilian Thuram and Claude Makélélé: the excellent Mondial-2006 and the rout of Euro-2008
Like Zidane, Thuram and Makélélé announce their international retirement after the failure of Euro-2004.
But, re-motivated by the prospect of the World-2006, they announce as "ZZ" their return to Blue and participate in the epic in Germany.
In addition to the new year, it's also the birthday of Lilian Thuram, who turns 49!
He is the most capped player of the EDF (142 selections)!
If he only scored two goals with the Blues, these are the ones that allowed France to reach the final in 1998!
🇫🇷 🙌 pic.twitter.com/U4RzAvlHmD
- Oh My Goal - France (@ohmygoal_fr) January 1, 2021
In June 2008, after leaving the road in the first round of the Euro, the defender and the defensive midfielder announced their final international retirement.
With 142 selections, Thuram remains the most capped French player.
• Ronaldinho: an anonymous return
Sacred world champion in 2002 with Brazil, Ronaldinho, who is revealed to Paris SG before exploding in Barcelona, is regularly called up for selection.
Holder at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, he is no longer called for 18 months.
He comes back through the back door.
If he was not part of the initial selection for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he was finally recalled at the last minute as a reserve and did not compete in the competition.
"Ronnie" will then be called regularly for selection from 2010 to 2013. He hopes to be part of the group for the 2014 World Cup at home, but Brazil is doing without his services.
Brazil 2014!
#Ronaldinho and #Neymar!
LoL pic.twitter.com/vgpHp93XFR
- Insolite-Foot (@InsoliteFoot) March 25, 2013
•
Lionel Messi: hard, hard to carry the weight of a country.
For Messi, crowned with success in Barcelona, it was his repeated disappointments with Argentina that pushed him to temporarily move away from the selection.
After a defeat in the final of the World Cup-2014 then in the final of the Copa America-2015, Messi stumbles again on the last step in the final of the Copa America-2016.
"The selection is over for me, it's the fourth final that I lose, the third in a row," he said on June 26, 2016, bitter.
17. Retiro
Luego de la Copa América Centenario se canso: “Para mí terminó la selección.
Ya lo brought mucho, me duele no ser campeón con Argentina y me voy sin lograrlo.
Es increíble, pero no se nos da.
Hoy nos pasó otra vez y otra vez los penales.
pic.twitter.com/EW8WTqD5PX
- Club de Hilos de Fútbol (@clubhilosfutbol) June 24, 2020
A little sentence that plunges a whole country into fear.
But this international retreat does not last.
Messi reconsiders his words two months later and will play in the 2018 World Cup ... without much more success: elimination in the eighth against France (4-3) and new international parenthesis for the six-fold Ballon d'Or, which makes a station wagon until early 2019.
With AFP
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