Mathieu Valbuena, seen above celebrating his goal in France's 5-2 destruction of Switzerland last night once had a very difficult spell during his early period with Marseille with other players frankly being a bit mean over his diminutive stature. Valbuena was singled out by two of his France teammates in particular, Franck Ribery and Samir Nasri, both of whom are not involved in the World Cup:
“When I see them at the national side get-togethers, I prefer to make light of what went on because the story is over,” he said last year.
“Despite it being over, I still have a bad memory of what went on. To be systematically singled out for bad jokes really hurts.
“Nobody else in the dressing room would have put up being targeted like I was. I was not ready to be subjected to that. I was too nice, but I am now made of harder stuff.”
This story is being singled out more this weekend because of Didier Deschamps refusing to pick Nasri for the World Cup and the untimely injury to Franck Ribery which ultimately propelled Valbuena into the French side.
What we can't seem to figure out is the gumption of Ribery and Nasri mocking anyone for their size, it's like Peter Crouch poking fun at how tall someone is.
Vine: Gooal
H/t: The National
