The Sun tracked down former Juventus man Vincent Pericard. The Frenchman has recently retired form football and took some time out to talk about the reasons behind his failure to realise his potential
When one thinks of French youngster burning their wings abroad, names of Jeremie Aliadiere and Vincent Pericard come to mind immediately. The former has now arrived at Lorient where he is looking to end his professional career.
However, it is Vincent Pericard who could have become a big player for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 albeit a lot of reasons. Pericard was a prospect at the AS Saint-Etienne youth academy. In 2000, he was snapped up by Italian Serie A giants Juventus. However, the attacker was
never able to make his mark on the first-team and in 2002, was sent out on loan to Portsmouth.
At the English side, Pericard played 32 games and scored 9 goals before joining them on a permanent basis in 2003. However, things never really worked out at Pompey the way Pericard had hoped.
Short stints at Sheffield United, Plymouth, Stoke City, Milwall, Carlisle and Swindon Town followed but the youngster never realised the immense potential he had.
While talking to the media, Pericard says that depression played a big role in his failure to realise his true potential.
“I suffered depression, especially when an injury sidelined me for 12 months. The doctors gave me Prozac and it’s not something I recommend,” he told frankly before explaining that life of a player is far from smooth sailing.
“I tried to stay strong. Other players drink, multiply their earnings to find their adrenalin. Everyone thinks that footballers are happy because they make lots of money. But there is another side which is hard.”
The Frenchman then explained why he decided to hang his boots despite having a few good years ahead of him.
When he left Swindon, Pericard struggled to find a new club before he signed for Havant and Waterlooville.
Now, the Franco-Cameroonian is working at Elite Professional Management where he hopes to help players avoid making the same mistakes that he did.
“it was very difficult to quite football at 29 years, but now I am dedicated to help foreigners adapt to football in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749.”
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