Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
LLORIS: DRINK-DRIVE HELL WILL MAKE ME STRONGER & BETTER
TOTTENHAM skipper Hugo Lloris says his drink-driving ban has changed him as a man.
He’s totally remorseful, and accepts all the blame for an offence that saw a 20-month ban and £50,000 fine handed down in September last year. Ahead of Spurs’ clash with Leicester at Wembley today, France star Lloris, 32, said: “In life you have to have une épreuve [a test or trial] in front of you.
New challenges and new objectives.
“You can learn at any age.”
He is humbled by the fact manager Mauricio Pochettino let him keep the club captaincy.
Lloris added: “You need support in that type of situation. I had that support from my family, mates, manager, the club and fans.” Now, with Spurs far from out of the title race with just 13 games to go, Lloris added: “It’s OK to dream of the title, but it is important to have a bit of sense too.
“The main target is to get into the top four for the fourth time in a row. That doesn’t mean we lack ambition.
“The ambition is to win every game until the end of the season.
“My mentality, from the first moment I play football at five years old in the garden or in a park, is to win. When I train every day, it’s to win. And when I start a game it’s to win.
“Sometimes the opponent is better. Sometimes you fail as a team.
“Every defeat is pain, big pain. It can be a friendly game, or a final like the Euros. This is what you deal with in football.
“When you win, everything is OK. When you lose, it hurts so much.
“This is how you question yourself – how you bounce back, how you play good or you play bad individually. It’s like this all your career.”
If losing is tough, winning can apparently be murder – and
Lloris revealed that lifting the
World Cup left him so drained he spent a day in bed. He said: “It’s the kind of consecration in your career. Credit to all the work you have done.
“And after the World Cup, the next two or three days, there is a lot of celebration, a lot of obligation, towards the country, towards the French Federation, towards the fans.
“Then after that, you feel so empty. I remember I needed a day to stay in the bed and just stop. I was completely empty in my body and my mind.”
Lloris will have his hands full when Spurs host Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, but added: “To still be involved in the Champions League and face Dortmund is fantastic. My legs and mind are ready
to fight.”