Europe 1 with AFP 9:15 p.m., January 9, 2023

Coach Didier Deschamps praised the "exceptional career" and the "remarkable" personality of his historic captain Hugo Lloris, "a very great servant of the France team" who decided to retire internationally "at the top of his game. ".

Shortly after the announcement of the international retirement of Hugo Lloris, Didier Deschamps reacted to this news by confiding that the now former captain of the Blues had warned him upstream.

"I must, we must respect his decision even if he still had his full place in our team, as he demonstrated at the last World Cup in Doha", where the Blues reached the final, said reacted Deschamps in a press release sent to the media.

The boss of the Blues says he was informed "a few days ago" of this decision, announced by the goalkeeper on Monday.

"A very great servant of the France team bows out and I want to salute his exceptional career," he adds.

"Beyond all the records that his talent and professionalism have allowed him to beat, beyond the essential role he played in our greatest conquests, the 2018 World Cup, the 2021 Nations League, in our most beautiful journeys, the final of Euro 2016 and that of the 2022 World Cup, Hugo is a remarkable person on a human level", affirms Deschamps.

>> READ ALSO

- Blues captain Hugo Lloris announces his international retirement

Captain of the Blues at 23

Launched in 2018 by Raymond Domenech, Lloris was appointed captain by Laurent Blanc in November 2010, at the age of 23 years and almost eleven months, a precocity record for a tricolor goalkeeper.

It was he who lifted the World Cup on July 15, 2018, twenty years after Deschamps.

"He was captain when I became coach in 2012, I kept the armband for him and I've never had to regret it, quite the contrary. Hugo has a very high idea of ​​​​the France team, he has always been turned towards the collective, he always put the collective forward, sometimes even to his detriment", writes Deschamps, wishing his former player "to be happy".

The first match without Lloris will take place on March 24 at the Stade de France against the Netherlands at the start of qualifying for Euro 2024. Deschamps will have to appoint a new captain by then.