Hugo Lloris Reveals Why He Dropped Tennis to Become a Goalkeeper & What Influenced His Move to Spurs
Hugo Lloris has revealed that football wasn't his first sporting love as he admitted that he had eyes on being a tennis player.
The Tottenham goalkeeper sat down with Guillem Balague for an in-depth interview in AS that covered a range of topics, from current hotshot striker Harry Kane to how hard shot stoppers train.
It is his comments about opting to play tennis first, though, that are the most curious of Lloris' chat with Balague, and the France international explains how he came to love football after taking a break from tennis practice one day.
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He said: "I started out with a tennis racquet. Later, during one of the breaks we got from tennis, I started playing football with my friends. I was only five years old.
"I don’t know why I wanted to be a goalkeeper either, maybe because I could throw myself at the feet of my opponents, for the risk.
"I believe what attracted me to being a keeper so early in life was the responsibility that came with it."
The 30-year-old began life in his homeland with Nice and then Lyon, before he completed an £11m move to north London with Spurs in the summer of 2012.
Lloris has gone on to captain the Lilywhites during his 224 appearances, play in the Champions League and cup finals, contest for the Premier League title and become one of the best keepers in world football.
Speaking about how his switch to England came about, Lloris revealed that it was a change in mentality at Lyon - going from wanting to win UEFA's flagship continental tournament to just trying to win Ligue 1 - that forced him to consider calling time on his career with them and instead try his hand in England's top flight.
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He added: "I had a great time at Lyon, I arrived there at 21 and immediately went into the national team and found out what it was like to play at the highest level.
"In that moment, they were a big European club, even bigger than now, with ambitions of winning the Champions League. Later, that changed a little but with the new stadium and they couldn’t compete economically with the other clubs and the way the club worked changed too.
"They gave more opportunities to the younger players and I left. If I was going to improve, I needed something new and then Tottenham appeared.
"It was an emotional moment. But after two years, I saw that it was not the club that I expected, the structure, the way we worked wasn’t working properly."
