Eric Abidal capped 67 times for his country. (AFP)
Defender Eric Abidal, who underwent a liver transplant in 2012, has become the latest French player to announce his retirement from international football.
Abidal, 34, capped 67 times for his country, follows Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery and Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri in bringing down the curtain on his international career. Now playing for Olympiakos in Greece after spells with Barcelona and Monaco, Abidal told Catalan radio station Rac1 he had been upset at not being selected for the World Cup in Brazil.
“It’s over,” he said late Wednesday. “I have not held a press conference or said anything. I am saying it for the first time today but I am more than certain that I will no longer join the national team.”
Abidal, who played for Barcelona for six years from 2007, was first diagnosed with a liver tumour in March 2011 and a year later underwent a transplant. He won the last of his 67 caps in a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in November last year but coach Didier Deschamps finally left him out of the World Cup squad for Brazil.
“The coach called me to tell me I was not on the list. It affected me a lot,” said Abidal. “I wanted to end with the World Cup and all my fight up to now was for that. I won’t say it was for nothing but I wanted to finish well, I wanted to finish with the World Cup and now that door is closed,” he said.
Abidal joined Monaco in July last year after Barcelona opted not to renew his contract. The former Lille and Lyon player says he has fully recovered and he successfully completed medical checks last month to join Greek champions Olympiakos.
Belgian defender van Buyten hangs up his boots
Belgian international defender Daniel van Buyten, without a club since his contract with Bayern Munich expired in June, has decided to retire from the game at the age of 36.
Van Buyten had been approached by several clubs in Germany and France and had a concrete offer on the table of a contract with Belgian champions Anderlecht, who had offered him a one-year deal worth a million euros.
But in a letter, , van Buyten turned the offer down flat. “When I commit to a project, I do so 100 percent ...My body tells me it isn’t possible and I do not want to fall short of fulfilling the expectations of a club like Anderlecht,” he wrote. Van Buyten, one of the key players in Belgium’s World Cup squad in Brazil, explained: “I prepared really hard for the tournament. My body has certainly suffered.”
A professional since 1998, van Buyten played for Charleroi, Standard Liege, Marseille, Manchester City, Hamburg and Bayern, where he stayed from 2006 until this year.
He helped the Bavarians to four German titles, four Cups, the 2013 Champions League and World Club Cup. In 586 club matches, he scored 71 goals and was capped 83 times by Belgium, scoring 11 goals.
His final match was the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, which the Belgians lost 1-0.
