The Mandanda Bombshell: 2018 World Cup Champion Goalkeeper's Painful Farewell Book — "There's Nothing in My Life That I Like"

France's 2018 World Cup-winning goalkeeper Steve Mandanda has published a biography that has shaken the football world. Released by Flammarion on May 13, 2026, "Les Jours d'Après" (The Days After) tells with raw honesty the post-retirement depression of the 41-year-old goalkeeper who ended his 21-year professional career when his Rennes contract expired in September 2025. In excerpts published by L'Équipe, Mandanda confesses he lost his sense of meaning in life after football ended.

The book's most striking words reveal personal trauma. Mandanda writes: "There's nothing in my life that I like. I believe I am unhappy, or at least, lost." In another section he describes the psychological burden of retirement: "I feel useless, yesterday was awful, I did absolutely nothing." He adds: "I lost track of time by doing absolutely nothing during empty and endless days." Mandanda summarizes the reality of professional athletes after retirement: "When everything stops, your daily life becomes bland."

Mandanda exposes a widespread problem in football. In his book he claims that "8 out of 10 footballers find the transition to retirement difficult." The goalkeeper describes this situation as "a sudden end, comparable to bereavement, even when it is anticipated." The book also covers the former France international's exchanges with other former internationals like Guillaume Hoarau and Patrice Evra on how they got over post-retirement depression.

Throughout his career, Mandanda made 797 appearances wearing the colors of Le Havre, Marseille (two spells totaling 14 seasons), Crystal Palace and Rennes. He earned 35 caps for France, won the 2018 World Cup, and was named Ligue 1's best goalkeeper at the UNFP awards 5 times between 2008-2018. He became a club legend as Marseille's all-time most-appeared player (613 matches). He won the Ligue 1 title with Marseille under Didier Deschamps in the 2009-10 season.

Mandanda shares with L'Équipe how he found himself again. "The weeks are very similar. Yes, but at least I'm filling them little by little. I extricate myself as much as possible from the loneliness, the rumination, the emptiness, and the pointlessness." The goalkeeper also confessed that retirement was a forced decision: "If Rennes had proposed continuing, I'd still be active." He said he rejected offers from Le Havre, Lorient, Guingamp, Brest and Montpellier, and didn't accept offers from Türkiye and Saudi Arabia because they were "too far away." For the football world, this biography powerfully exposes the often-overlooked psychological reality of professional athletes after retirement.