The legendary Frenchman, Franck Ribery, has called it a day after winning a stunning 25 major trophies at club level and playing in a World Cup final at 23. The Bayern Munich hero has represented his country 81 times and finishes his career after three years in Serie A.
We take a look back at his magical playing career.
Grazie per avermi emozionato così tanto, rimarrà per sempre nel mio cuore. @OfficialUSS1919 🙏🏼❤️Congratulazioni per la vittoria! Avanti cosi! Bravi ragazzi! 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/2uB4D4koYl— Franck Ribéry (@FranckRibery) October 22, 2022
Grazie per avermi emozionato così tanto, rimarrà per sempre nel mio cuore. @OfficialUSS1919 🙏🏼❤️Congratulazioni per la vittoria! Avanti cosi! Bravi ragazzi! 💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/2uB4D4koYl
After scoring 124 goals across 425 appearances for Bayern alongside 182 assists, barely anyone has ever done it better for the German giants.
In fact, alongside his partner in crime, Arjen Robben, the two go down as arguably the century’s best winger partnership, considering they didn’t just dominate, but also spent 10 years taking over the Bundesliga.
In total, Ribery took home nine Bundesliga titles, one Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup, one FIFA Club World Cup, four DFL-Supercups and six DFB-Pokal titles.
In fact, from August 2012 through to September 2013, the Frenchman was the best player for Bayern in winning absolutely everything in sight, which totalled six trophies inside a year.
In truth, he probably should have won the Ballon d’Or.
For the decade between 2008 and 2018, barely anyone got close to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the Ballon d’Or rankings.
Alongside Andres Iniestia in 2010, Ribery was arguably the most deserving of dethroning the two dominating figures after winning the treble with Bayern Munich in 2012/13.
After being the Bundesliga top assists provider and scoring 11 goals in all competitions, Ribery won the UEFA Best Player in Europe trophy, but lost out on the biggest individual prize in football to Ronaldo, despite the Champions League, DFB-Pokal and Bundesliga medals in his back pocket.
His performance in that 2012/13 year was incredible, and barely ever would you see him drop less than a 9/10. Nevertheless, he claimed 23.36% of the votes, compared to 24.72% for Messi and 27.99% for the winner, Ronaldo.
Not bad considering these two are considered the greatest players to ever walk the planet and this was arguably their most dominating period.
Ribery joined Fiorentina in 2019 and left before moving to Salernitana last year. He played just twice for Salernitana this season before retiring, although his legendary status was further established by winning the Fiorentina Player of the Season award in his debut season in Italy.
A sensational talent, and one of Bayern and France’s all-time greats.