Jérémy Mathieu opens up about depression and how working at Intersport helped him

“I was in a dark place; working in a store brought me back to life,” Jérémy Mathieu says. In an interview with So Foot, the former Barça and Valencia player looks back on the difficult episodes he went through after leaving football. He reveals that he suffered from depression and says his job at Intersport helped him start moving forward again.

Mathieu’s career ended in 2020 after he suffered a serious cruciate-ligament injury with Sporting de Portugal. He had still been hoping to play for two more years. “Mentally, it was hard for me to accept the situation,” he admits. He describes four especially difficult years in which he felt lost. “Luckily, my wife was there to help me get through it.”

The former defender says he did not seek psychological help. He tried to get through the period with the support of his wife and children. “No, and I don’t regret it. I tried to move forward with my wife and children. In the end, it worked,” he says.

Working in a store marked a turning point. Mathieu says he started at Intersport two years ago and believes the job helped him regain strength, rebuild his social life and, in his words, “live again”. The change also mattered at home: his wife had taken occasional jobs of her own, and working separately was good for both of them. Mathieu also reconnected with friends.

He went on to spend almost a year working as a sales assistant. After an unsuccessful attempt to join Sochaux’s youth setup, he returned to Intersport, where he was offered the role of assistant to the manager of the football section.

A photo of the former player wearing the retailer’s clothes drew reactions on social media. His past as a European champion in 2015 and a France international had surprised some observers, even though the image concealed a difficult personal period. Mathieu says he does not understand why the photograph was seen as a sign of failure. He recalls that some users assumed he was bankrupt or asked what he was doing in the store. “I didn’t need this job to survive. I just needed to rebuild a social life so I could move forward,” he insists.