“I burst into tears”: Florian Thauvin confides in his depression before his departure from OM

It’s a subject on which footballers are opening up more and more easily. The latest is Florian Thauvin: interviewed in the show “Canal Football Club” on Canal+, this Sunday, the former OM striker (2013-2015 then 2016-2021) and French international (10 selections, 1 goal) returned to the depression he experienced shortly before his departure from Marseille.

“I was told: You are already at a stage of depression” ????

Florian Thauvin looks back on his departure from Olympique de Marseille in 2021 ⚪️????#CFC pic.twitter.com/qi5WVTos4S

— CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) December 3, 2023

In the summer of 2021, the native of Orléans leaves OM for Mexico and the Tigres, where his former teammate André-Pierre Gignac plays. “I was very good at that time (athletically) but I admit that mentally, I was not,” he explains. When I chose to go to Mexico, I wanted to find a little more peace and quiet, less pressure, whether from the supporters or even the media. » At the microphone of RMC in 2022, Thauvin had already spoken about the private difficulties he had encountered in the last months of his life in Marseille.

Thavin then clearly expresses that he experienced depression. “Actually, I didn’t realize it myself. It was people around me who told me to go see someone. And then when I went to see this person, three months before I left OM, during the conversation, I burst into tears. It did me good, we resumed the conversation and this lady told me at one point: it’s a low stage but you are already at the depression stage. I was shocked but I told myself that at some point, maybe we needed to take a step back to come back better. »

If Thauvin’s two seasons in Mexico were not a real success (39 matches, 8 goals), the man who will celebrate his 31st birthday at the end of January 2024 has since returned to Europe and an important place within the squad of Udinese, in Italian Serie A.