In an interview, Bayern legend Franck Ribery revealed that he almost lost a leg three years ago.
Anyone who watched Franck Ribery recently at the Franz Beckenbauer Cup might have thought that the now 41-year-old Frenchman had hardly lost any of his dynamism. Yet his lively performance almost wouldn’t have been possible.
As the long-standing winger for FC Bayern Munich revealed in an interview with L’Equipe, he almost had to face the amputation of one of his legs in 2022. At the time, Ribery was playing for US Salernitana in Italy.
“The pain in my knee was getting worse and worse. I no longer trained between games, I recovered to spare myself,” said the 2006 World Cup runner-up. “The tests showed that I no longer had any cartilage, so I had an operation in Austria. The operation went well, I had a plate inserted.”
But it didn’t stop there. “The infection had eaten away at me. It got so bad that I had holes in my leg,” revealed Ribery, who had contracted a dangerous bacterial infection (Staphylococcus aureus): “I was in a hospital in Austria for twelve days, I was very scared. They almost amputated my leg.” In the fall of 2022, he had to end his active career at the time.
However, things have worked out for the 2013 triple winner since then, so he was not only allowed to keep his leg. He can now also play really exciting soccer again – at least at charity indoor tournaments.
