"World Cup Champion Opens Up About Struggles: 'I Never Even Left the House' as Loneliness Drove Him to Rock Bottom"

SAMUEL UMTITI says he went “to the very bottom” when World Cup-related injury woes torpedoed his career.

Former defender Umtiti chose not to have surgery – against the advice of his club at the time, – so that he could play at the 2018 tournament in .

Umtiti went on to lift the trophy, scoring the winner in the semi-final and playing every minute of the final for Les Bleus.

But he sustained chronic knee cartilage damage in the process and was never the same again.

In an upcoming documentary called ‘Diving Heads’, Umtiti comes clean on what went on behind the scenes during the most difficult moments in his career.

And he admits that his injury ordeal took him from the “mountain” of the “to the very bottom”, adding that he was “ruined” by loneliness.

Umtiti shed more light on the fiasco that soured relationship with Barca fans during an interview with RMC Sport earlier this month.

He said: “Most [specialists] told me that I didn’t need to have surgery. In the end, Barcelona listened to my choice. But I think there were things that happened internally that people didn’t necessarily appreciate.

“From that moment on, I think the rift was created and people started talking, saying things that weren’t necessarily true, putting all the blame on me.”

As Umtiti scrambled to get his knee in shape, he was limited to just 41 league appearances in the four entire seasons following the 2018 World Cup.

He continued: “Looking back, I know that mentally I was very, very, very affected by it, perhaps by the bouts of depression.

“There were so many things… I didn’t even leave my house. People didn’t know all of this.

“I worked so hard, I was doing two or three training sessions a day, it was incredible what I was doing, I didn’t even really have a life, I didn’t see my friends.

“I tried to do things the way the club wanted, but it didn’t work; my knee was always swollen.

“I also read books about the problem I had. I stopped eating meat and fish.

“I had a lot of resentment before, but I’ve done a lot of work and I don’t hold a grudge against anyone. I’m at peace with all of that.”

Umtiti spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Italian side Lecce and had a brief spell at Lille the following campaign – but he once again had issues staying fit.

Two knee operations in 2024 failed to fix the problems that sprung up in 2018 and Umtiti retired in September at the age of 31.

Eze Chidiebere Paul

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