4th August, 2014
Manchester City’s France midfielder Samir Nasri on Monday indicated that he has decided to quit international football.
The 27-year-old has endured a fractious relationship with his national team and was left out of the squad for this year’s World Cup in Brazil by France coach Didier Deschamps.
“I’ve made the decision. I made it a while ago, but I will announce it when the time is right,” he said in an interview with the Sky Sports website, without specifying what that decision was.
“With the national team I didn’t win anything. So it’s more easy to take this decision than if we’d just won something. When you play for a big club and you play lots of games, it’s easy to come to this decision.”
Nasri made his France debut at the age of 19 in 2007 and has won 41 caps, scoring five goals, but his international career has been dogged by controversy.
He clashed with senior players during the 2008 European Championship and unleashed an expletive-strewn tirade at a journalist following France’s elimination at Euro 2012, for which he received a three-game ban.
Nasri’s girlfriend Anara Atanes, meanwhile, sparked controversy in May when she responded to his exclusion from the World Cup squad with a foul-mouthed Twitter attack on Deschamps and the France squad.
“Even before the summer, during Euro 2012 I had a lot going on,” Nasri added. “Personally it doesn’t affect me, but it affects my family. They live in France, they read the press stuff.
“I live in England so I’m fine with everything they say (in France) and I’m used to it. But for my parents it’s really hard. I want to make them happy and the national team doesn’t make me happy.”
Nasri has won two Premier League titles and one League Cup since leaving Arsenal for City in 2011 and he appears to have decided to concentrate solely on his club career.
He stopped short of confirming his international retirement, however.
“It’s not something you can just announce on Twitter,” he said. “I have to sit down and do a full interview and just say it. I will do it when the time is right.”