Fabien Barthez goes out Fighting

By: Bob | April 30th, 2007

Love him or hate him, Fabien Barthez always has been an entertainer. The French goalkeeper’s brilliance interspersed with comic ineptitude has been on display in international football for more than a decade, but alas it probably will be no more. Barthez announced today that he will not be returning to the Ligue 1 side Nantes this season and frankly I can’t blame him one bit.

Barthez was brought in back in January to bolster Nantes’ fight against relegation. This is a club that has never been relegated since France’s top flight was reorganized in 1963. They almost certainly are going down this season thanks in no small part to Barthez’s trademark blunders.

Following their team’s defeat to Rennes this weekend, Nantes fans decided that enough was enough it was time to teach their former national team keeper a lesson. So five of them attacked his car. And Barthez attacked back. And now he has announced that he would rather eat nails than play for Nantes again.

It is hard to believe that Barthez will return to competitive football after the ways things turned out this season. In some ways this is a fitting way for Barthez to end his career. He departs as the center of attention, the center of controversy and certainly without a whimper. That is the way you’d expect a flamboyant player to go out.

Yet, that doesn’t make the image of Barthez fearing for his life while a bunch of drunken bozos attack his car any less sad and any less pathetic.