In January of 2014, after winning the treble with Bayern Munich, Franck Ribéry sat on the FIFA Ballon d'Or stage next to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ribéry had already been awarded the 'UEFA Best Player in Europe' trophy, beating out both of the footballing demigods and his own teammate, Arjen Robben, just months prior. He was, without argument, one of the best three players in the world. And when the award went to Ronaldo instead, it was an injustice that sullied the credibility of the award.
Franck Ribéry refuses to be discarded and forgotten
A couple of months ago, everyone assumed Franck Ribéry was headed for an early retirement. Now he’s a star for Bayern Munich again.
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Regardless of the result, he was at the top of the footballing Parthenon. He had won every trophy available with his club and had usurped Ronaldo and Messi of the throne as Europe’s best player. His place in history would never be forgotten. That is, until his body began to fail him just a month after the ceremony. His injury problems would would last for more than nine months, jeopardizing his career and his legacy in the process, and it would take a splendid bicycle kick in a 1-0 win in 2016 to thrust him back into the spotlight.
Prior to this new feat, Ribéry had been his own personal sporting purgatory, his health issues stopping and starting numerous attempts at regaining the throne. Out of the blue, Ribéry suffered an inexplicable lung effusion in February 2014, returned for a few games a month later and then was felled by back issues that April. He returned in July but by August he was injured again; patella pain turned Ribéry into a spectator as Bayern started the new season from the sidelines, out until mid-October.
Ribéry showed flashes of his old form with a great run of games upon his return, culminating with him scoring the solitary goal, his 100th for Bayern, in a win against Bayer Leverkusen in December. In that game, he also set the record of most appearances in the Bundesliga by a Frenchman, at 288. He would appear in the next four games. Ribéry seemed past his troublesome injuries, consequences of age and use rather than a sign of decline.
That is, until March 11, 2015. He was subbed out of a Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk in the 58th minute due to injury. He had pain in his right ankle. A few days later, he was ruled out for the rest of the season.
As the months passed, his ankle did not respond to treatment, progressively worsening to the point that his right foot had to be immobilized. The act of simply walking pained him that much. There were no more stop-starts to his return, Ribéry’s golden career had come to a full stop.
Rumors of retirement swirled. Even the usually confident Bayern President Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was beginning to lose hope:
“Franck has suffered too many stoppages in recent seasons, we should have counted on him in a more continued manner. But it’s clear that, statistically talking, he has missed a lot of games in recent seasons because of injuries.”
The big man was right. At that time Ribéry had missed 79 out of a possible 272 games for Bayern. Since Pep Guardiola's inception as manager at the end of the 2013 season, he had missed 55 percent of the games available. It would have been understandable for the club to look to terminate his contract. He was, by the looks of everything, done as a player.
The club didn’t terminate his contract outright. Instead, they looked for replacements. Bayern bought Douglas Costa from Shakhtar and Kingsley Coman from Juventus in a clear signal that even if Ribéry recovered, they were moving into a new life without him.
But Ribéry was stubborn on his recovery. By the start of the 2015-16 season his ankle finally responded to treatment and on Oct. 15, he jogged alone around the team’s training fields, the first time he had been able to do so in over 240 days.
He was relegated to sneakers, not yet cleared to move into football boots, but the fact that he was running, and running without pain, was enough. Ribéry had gone from one of the best players in world football to a forgotten man within the span of a year. Football and time do not wait for anyone, regardless of talent.
His progression was then very quick. On Dec. 2, he was cleared to practice with the full team and on the Dec. 5, he came on from the bench against Borussia Mönchengladbach and scored less than 10 minutes after his entrance, as if he hadn’t missed a beat at all.
Outside of a minor muscle ache, which temporarily sidelined him again, Ribéry has once again returned to the wizardry he’d performed back when he was the world’s most dangerous attacker. Since Valentine’s Day, he’s played in 11 straight games, starting six of those with a goal and two assists (which, if we’re being honest, should be three since he caused an own goal against Stuttgart, as well) to show for it.
That lone goal came against Frankfurt and epitomized the magic that is Franck Ribéry. An old magic that feels as fresh and even more refreshing now given the context.
As Mario Götze drove the ball towards the opposition’s box, Ribéry trailed behind him and when the resultant shot was parried by the goalkeeper, the Frenchman was right inside of the box. The ball came out and was looping over him. Ribéry didn’t hesitate, he instinctively biked it over the scrambling keeper.
Then he got up, pushed away Medhi Benatia and ran towards the fans, screaming, beating his chest and pumping his hands. After a hellacious nine-month layoff that threatened to end his career, one that resigned him to the repetitive isolation of rehabilitation, of immobility and doubt, after the world and his team had forgotten and moved on from him, he was announcing himself back into the narrative. There he was in all of his magnificence.
It’s inevitable that he will suffer injuries again, but the worst of it seems over, and from the experience returns a great player who is hell-bent on reminding the world why he was, at one time, one of the best players in the world. The post-Ribéry life will have to be postponed.
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