Samuel Umtiti has a World Cup winner’s medal in his pocket, chronic cartilage damage in his knee, and the question of whether it was all worth it.

On July 10 2018, France played Belgium in Saint Petersburg. It was the biggest match of Umtiti’s career so far, the then 24-year-old playing to take his country to the World Cup final.

Umtiti was imperious that night. Alongside centre-back partner Raphael Varane, he kept a clean sheet against arguably the tournament’s most talented attack — a Belgium side including Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne, and Romelu Lukaku in their primes.

After 51 minutes, Antoine Griezmann hit an inswinging corner towards the near post. Umtiti met it at the front edge of the six-yard box, flicked it, and, without bothering to see the net bulge behind him, he was running.

Both arms came out, momentarily wings, before he stopped and waggled his hips and arms, mimicking the Fortnite-inspired celebrations which became a trademark of the France team that tournament. France held on to win 1-0. Umtiti was awarded man of the match. At full-time, coach Didier Deschamps rushed to embrace him.


Deschamps and Umtiti embrace after France beat Belgium at World Cup 2018 (Getty Images)

In the final one week later, Umtiti started as France won their second World Cup with a 4-2 win over Croatia.

Almost six years have passed since that July evening in Russia, and several elements make it seem a world away. But Kylian Mbappe is still France’s star, Deschamps is still their coach and, on Monday evening, France will meet Belgium in the first knockout game between the neighbours since that night.

Umtiti will not be a part of it. In truth, he has never looked close to being part of it again — since the World Cup, he has made just six more appearances for France. It would be a miracle to see a seventh.

“He was really important, nobody has forgotten what he did for the national team,” said Deschamps on Sunday.

“Thanks to him we went to a final, we remember the goal, but his quality in the games every time. The only thing that I have to say to him is thank you for everything you did for the national team and if we are world champions, we have to say thanks to him also because after that he had difficult years a difficult season and he didn’t play like he wanted.

“This is the only message I have for him, he is a good friend of mine and I know all the sacrifices he made for the national team.”

Umtiti is stil 30, no age for a centre-back. Pepe, 11 years his senior, is still starting for Portugal and Saliba, the former Barcelona player, could conceivably be the veteran partner to William Saliba at this tournament, just as Varane was for him.

There is a picture of Umtiti holding the World Cup trophy. His eyes are closed and he is kissing the globe. The mist rising from warm bodies through the rain makes it appear dreamlike, because it was. For many, this is the last image of that player with the waggling hips, at the top of the world, and unburdened by football’s brutality.

Over the coming years, the mist would thicken. This is the story of a player who, without knowing it, ended up sacrificing his career to win a World Cup.

It wasn’t until he was 15 that Umititi ‘officially’ became French but in truth, the country had felt like home long before that. His family moved from Yaounde, the capital of west African country Cameroon, when he was just two years old, settling in Lyon.

Theirs was a tight-knit family, with Umtiti especially close to his brother Yannick, who would later become his agent and live with him in Barcelona. When it became apparent that Umtiti was blessed with precocious footballing ability, his mother Annie took driving lessons and earned her license in order to take him to training.

 

He joined Menival FC, a small club in the west of Lyon surrounded by high-rise flats. From an early age, he was nicknamed Big Sam, with the ability to play multiple years above his age.

“He was five-years-old and could already play in an 11-aside game without any problems,“ remembered Menival FC president Said Intidam in France Football magazine. The Lyon academy would come calling soon afterwards — a side who Umtiti still regards today as “my club”.

 

Progression up the age-groups was smooth — with Umtiti arriving in Lyon’s first team in early 2012, aged just 18, and partnering future Liverpool centre-back Dejan Lovren in defence. Striker Alexandre Lacazette, two years older than Umtiti, would become a close friend, and remains so today.

Later, when Umtiti’s injuries were at their worst, and with Lacazette at Arsenal, the pair spoke about playing together again someday.

As soon as he became eligible, Umtiti began to be called up by France’s age-group sides, though there was competition. Cameroon’s FA contacted Umtiti and his family on several occasions to convince him to declare for them, even sending legendary striker Roger Milla for discussions.

Umtiti was not for turning: “I listened to his arguments, but my choice was already made, well thought out… From the start, I wanted Les Bleus,” he said.

In 2013, Umtiti was part of the France squad which won the Under-20 World Cup in Turkey, playing alongside the likes of Paul Pogba and Lucas Digne. He started every round — except the final, having been sent off against Ghana in the semi-final win. The disappointment lingered — and he resolved to play for France in a World Cup final again.

Umtiti’s star continued to rise and, after four seasons at Lyon, he signed for Barcelona for €25million in 2016, marked to partner Gerard Pique as the long-term replacement for Javier Mascherano. His laidback personality was immediately evident.

“I like taking a siesta,” he told Barca. “And I also prefer being at home to lazing on the beach but as my girlfriend knows the city quite well, I suppose we’ll do a bit of sight-seeing.”

In the event, there was little time for any sightseeing — Umtiti settled quickly. His style as a player is hard to pin down — he is brave with the ball at his feet, a given at Barcelona, but also strong in the air and quick across the ground. In short, he was the modern all-round centre-back. Team-mates settled for a simpler name — “The Wall”.

“Umtiti trains how he plays, nothing is saved,” Lionel Messi said about him, the support of Barcelona’s star a major tick in his adaptation. “Never, neither in games nor training.”

That season, finishing second in La Liga, Barcelona won 81 per cent of matches with Umtiti in the side — and just 47 per cent without him. His first senior international goal, in a 3-2 win over England in Paris, would come that summer.

Then came 2017-18. In many ways, it was the peak of his career — a year of professional success and silverware which few players achieve in an entire career. In others, it was the beginning of the end.

Barcelona would win the double with Umtiti a regular starter at the back, playing in virtually every game except for a two-week spell out with a hamstring injury. He was rewarded as well — signing a bumper new deal in May 2018, complete with a €500million release.

Umtiti would never play more than 14 La Liga games in a single season for Barcelona again.

The centre-back had begun experiencing knee pain in the second-half of that season, pushing through it until the title was secured, before missing Barcelona’s final three games. He had determined to battle through.

“I was told over and over again that I was a little soft,” he told France Football in 2016. “(But I learned) the job is to prevent the opponent from scoring, to tackle if necessary, to clear in the stands if necessary. You have to make yourself look shabby and not hesitate to not look ‘pretty’.”

It was this mentality, and his desperation to help France to another final, which informed his decision. Barcelona doctors, who diagnosed it as an issue with the cartilage, recommended surgery, although the ultimate choice lay with Umtiti. He mulled over the decision, changing his mind on a couple of occasions — but the desire to play in the World Cup won out. He opted for more conservative treatment.

“I clenched my teeth and played as best I could,” he told L’Equipe in 2019.

At the World Cup, his injury was scarcely noticeable. To the outside observer, this was a player who rested at the end of the club season, got his body right, and was now starring for a France team favoured to go all the way. The reality was very different.

“During the World Cup, I didn’t necessarily do what was necessary (to treat the injury) — or rather, things were done that I should have avoided,” he explained in 2019. “I have always been professional but there are protocols and certain things that you are asked to do even though they aren’t necessarily good in the long-term.

“I regret those things a little bit. But it’s in the past. I’m not angry with anyone. I think the majority of people who gave me advice did so for my own good. Even if certain things were not necessarily good for my knee. But I’m an adult. I took those decisions on my own.”

As Deschamps said yesterday: “When you talk about Umtiti everybody knew in the team that he played with an injury.”

France topped their group with Umtiti starting the first two games, before being rested for a dead-rubber against Denmark. He then returned to the starting XI for a classic 4-3 win over Argentina in the round of 16, and a comprehensive 2-0 win over Uruguay in the quarter-final.

Umtiti and France were into the semi-final. Still, he played through the pain. Watch him dance after scoring the winner against Belgium. Can you tell?

Deschamps, speaking yesterday, added: “There are even those on the pitch, in all the teams that play with occasional problems that may unfortunately get worse afterwards. But he was in full possession of his abilities. That’s why he scored the goal that was decisive for us.”

Back in 2013, Umtiti was suspended for the final. This time, he started and played all 90 minutes of a comfortable yet chaotic 4-2 win over Croatia. France were World Cup champions. This was why Umtiti took the risk.

“What is next for you?” Griezmann asked Umtiti at full-time, jokingly imitating an interviewer on BeIN Sports.

“Champion of Europe,” replied Umtiti, laughing. “That comes next.”

Umtiti returned to Barcelona as a World Cup champion, but he lost something along the way. Playing in the tournament has caused him to forsake elements of even his conservative treatment — and after just six games, his body broke down once more. This time, he faced a far lengthier time out.

In December, with the centre-back unable to play, he was sent to Doha, the capital of Qatar, to undergo PRP injection therapy (platelet-rich plasma). The lengthy treatment involved removing blood, running through a centrifuge, then reinjecting the plasma to restart the healing process. All the while, Barcelona and Umtiti were careful about what to release publicly about his injury — wary of the uncertain prognosis, and reluctant to put a time on his recovery.

“I had to work on strengthening my quadriceps and a whole chain of muscles (around the knee),“ Umtiti explained. ”I had a big imbalance. I had it for a while. I had to work three times harder to get back.”

The treatment failed to fix the issue entirely. Towards the end of the season, Umtiti would play a game, realise the pain he was in, and then return to the bench for a handful of games. Though he was being supported by the club, they had made a large financial investment, and fans, left in the dark, were demanding to see their World Cup winner. It was impossible to avoid the pressure to return.

“During that time, I was quite cold and closed,” Umtiti said in an interview towards the end of 2018-19. “I wasn’t happy. I just wanted to get out of that nightmare. But contrary to what certain people have said, I have never been in conflict with my club over the steps to take. They have always listened to what I felt.”


Umtiti’s goal vs Belgium to put France into the 2018 World Cup final (Getty Images)

Clement Lenglet stepped up, a future France international signed from Sevilla while Umtiti was at the World Cup. By the time Umtiti was ready to play more in 2019-20, Lenglet and Pique were first-choice. A separate foot issue also made him miss time but his knee issue continued to flare up. He missed the first-half of the following season, 2020-21, with then-manager Ronald Koeman not trusting his knee upon his return, and leaving him out of the majority of squads.

“There were times in Barcelona that I didn’t want to leave the house,” he told French television channel Canal+ last May. “My friends told me to go out, to try and change my mood, but I said no, I wanted to be alone. It was very complicated.”

The nadir came in the summer of 2021, just three years after his greatest high. By this time, Barcelona recognised that they were deep in a financial crisis, owing millions on lucrative contracts — one of which undoubtedly included Umtiti. Over the coming year, the club would activate four “economic levers” — selling off a large percentage of their future television rights to private equity firms.

Part of the strategy involved attempting to sell players who were no longer part of the first-team plans — and after his knee complications, Umtiti fell squarely into that camp, with his contract set to run until 2026. No club had the ability to match Umtiti’s wages. Barcelona — who at the time were making an ultimately unsuccessful bid to retain Messi — even explored terminating his contract by mutual consent, a prospect which angered the player and his camp.

In January 2021, with Liverpool in the midst of a centre-back injury crisis, Jurgen Klopp’s side briefly put him under consideration.

Umtiti was not interested. He wanted to stay — and believed he could play. Barcelona did not agree — but could not find a way to sell him. From signing a release clause of €500m, he was now being pushed out for free. Public opinion began to turn against him, fuelled by a negative press.

In early August, Barcelona played Juventus in their annual Joan Gamper Trophy pre-season match. Koeman called on Umtiti to warm-up. The France international was booed relentlessly by his own fans. Koeman did not bring him on. Umtiti skipped the trophy presentation. Later, he posted on Instagram: “Sometimes it is better to say nothing and let the silence deal with things.”

Later, he clarified his feelings to Canal+: “The only thing I needed was to feel appreciated, useful and respected. In Catalonia, I spent four years depressed, not only on a sporting level but also in everyday life. At the beginning, after my move to Spain, I felt appreciated and I played at a good level. Then I started to feel a lack of trust, I felt bad and I realised that nobody believed in me anymore.”

He played just one match in 2021-22, left out of the squad by Koeman and Xavi, before breaking his toe. The next year, Umititi signed on loan for Serie A minnows Lecce, who paid Barcelona a small percentage of his wages. It was a mark of how far his star had fallen.

Umtiti did play in the southern Italian city, but the stint will mainly be remembered from the horrific racist abuse he faced from Lazio fans in January. Umtiti left the pitch in tears alongside team-mate Lameck Banda.

Last summer, at the end of his Lecce spell, Barcelona eventually terminated his contract. Two weeks later, he signed for Lille as a free agent. Over those years, he had made changes in a bid to regain fitness.

He lost three kilograms in a bid to aid his movement, relieving pressure on his knee, and took up a vegan diet. Most importantly, he said after signing, he had undergone a change of mindset.

“There are very difficult moments that I have lived through but, honestly, they are behind me now,” he said. “I worked a lot on this because I had a lot of resentment, a lot of things inside me and in the end it didn’t let me move forward. That’s life.”

There was real optimism. Umtiti signed a contract until 2025 and even spoke about the possibility of a return to the France squad, if he managed a run of games, knowing the allies he had in Deschamps and the influential Griezmann. The reality was different.

After his knee injury returned, Umtiti appeared in just five Ligue 1 matches last season, and underwent surgery on his knee in February. He has not played since.

It has been reported that Umtiti could be forced into retirement but, while this is a career on the wane, he is determined to play on. Even still, a return to regular top-flight action — never mind continental or international football — appears remote.

Every player dreams of scoring winning goals on the way to the World Cup trophy. Umtiti lived that. But had he known the fragility on which those dreams were built, would he have done so again? Dreams are dreams because we do not know them.

Additional reporting: Charlotte Harpur

(Top image: Getty Images)



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