Lilian Thuram’s Career May End with Heart Defect Diagnosis

Lilian Thuram has always been one of my favorite French players — a class act both on and off the field. He’s thirty-six years old and has played for France since 1994. He’s the team’s most-capped international at 142 games. In the years since World Cup 2006, he’s worn the captain’s armband every time Patrick Vieira has been injured, which has been frequently.

He’s been one of the most solid, reliable, dependable players for France, and for his clubs at Parma and Juventus. (Less so at his current club, Barcelona, where he never cemented a starting position after arriving in 2006.) His less-than-stellar Euros this month shouldn’t detract from the fact that many consider him one of the best central defenders of all time.

But now that footballing career may be coming to an abrupt end. Thuram had been planning on a transfer to Paris St. Germain (PSG) this summer, but those plans were halted when he was diagnosed with cardiac hypertrophy, a heart defect that killed his brother on the basketball court several years ago.

And yet Thuram still hopes for a return:

The 36-year-old defender stated that he hopes he is not sick, saying that he has a month before knowing if he is all right.

“If they say that I can play football, I will,” Thuram told L’Equipe.

According to the PSG staff, Thuram has a problem that is within the reasonable limits but that requires further exams because of his familiar antecedents.

Barcelona doctor Ricard Serra explained that even though Thuram had a cardiac hypertrophy, he was able to pass a medical with the club in 2006 as such hypertrophy was not abnormal.

“Thuram’s physiological hypertrophy is frequent in many sportsmen, specially in black ones,” Serra explained.

“Such problem has never caused any trouble in his career. A cardiac hypertrophy of this kind is no risk for sportsmen except in cases of sudden evolution, which happens almost exclusively during adolescence, rarely later.”

In addition to football, Thuram has been known for his work on behalf of the poor and immigrants in French society, and during the most recent election he was an outspoken opponent of now-president Nicolas Sarkozy because of Sarkozy’s stands on these issues. (This photo is of Sarkozy meeting with the team in the locker room after a France game. I believe that the caption should read, “Lilian? You know when you called me a racist? Well, I’m willing to forgive and forget if you’ll just let me touch that manly…glistening chest.”)

I’ve always expected Thuram to go into politics or something similar eventually, and this would seem to be a good time. Because it’s much harder to make a difference when you’re dead.

And Thuram apparently agrees:

Thuram has said that he will retire if his cardiac problem may put his life at risk, adding that his life comes first, then football.

Let’s hope he can remember that when it comes time to hang up his boots. He has too much to offer the world to end his life on the pitch.

To close, I’d like to share the highlights of the France-Croatia semifinal in World Cup 2006 1998, where Lilian scored his only two international goals. France won the game, 2-1, and advanced to the World Cup final, against Brazil, which they also won. Croatia did an excellent job of shutting down the rest of the team here, but they couldn’t shut down Thuram.

(Euro 2008-related trivia: If you watch through the entire video, you’ll see France player Laurent Blanc being shown a red card after the ref is taken in by a rather blatant Croatian dive. This cost Blanc the chance to play in the final. The diver? None other than current Croatia coach Slaven Bilic.)