As Didier Deschamps will leave his position as coach of the French team after the 2026 World Cup, one of the players that the Bayonnais called up in the first year of his tenure announced on Friday that he was retiring.
Having played seven times for the French team between June 2013 and March 2015, Josuha Guilavogui announced on Saturday the end of his career at the age of 35. “It’s time to write that famous sentence. I hang up my boots. The page turns but the book remains open,” wrote the central midfielder, without a club since leaving Leeds in June 2025.
“You gave me the chance to fulfill my father’s dream”
The former player of AS Saint-Étienne (2010-2014), trained at the Verts before moving to Wolfsburg (2014-2023), Girondins de Bordeaux (between January and June 2022), and Mainz (between September 2023 and June 2024), wished to pay homage to football by symbolically addressing his beloved sport.
“You gave me the chance to fulfill my father’s dream, which then became mine and lights up the hearts and eyes of millions of children… And then you chose me,” declared Josuha Guilavogui.
The native of Toulon notably won the League Cup with ASSE in 2013, the German Cup with Wolfsburg in 2015, and the Championship (English Second Division) last season with Leeds.
