Mathieu Debuchy has retired from international duty, insisting that he wants to devote himself fully to his club football from now on.

Speaking to French outlet RMC this week, Debuchy revealed that he’ll solely be focusing on Saint-Etienne from now on.

“The French team is finished (for me) for I want to move on, to devote myself to my club,” Debuchy said. “I’ve had a good time, a European Cup and a World Cup. I signed three years in Saint-Etienne. My goals are that I would like to win a trophy with Saint-Etienne.”

Explaining the reasons why he’s decided to give up on the national team, it was pretty clear that Debuchy wasn’t happy that he’s been ignored by Didier Deschamps this year.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been a team member of France,” he continued. “I think I did the maximum at the end of last season to appear. For me, I had my place in the (World Cup) squad. Now, choices have been made.”

In Debuchy’s defence, he did have a good run in the Saint-Etienne team last season, appearing for 15 consecutive matches and scoring four goals. Back in February, he even won Ligue 1’s Player of the Month award.

Nonetheless, instead of giving the former Gunner a call-up, Deschamps took centre-back Benjamin Pavard to Russia and played him at right-back.

Whilst you can see why Debuchy might be disappointed, you can also understand why he was left out. The right-back is always a bit too keen to go to the French media and complain whenever things don’t go his way, which isn’t good for squad morale.

Debuchy is also significantly older than the alternatives, at 33. Any manager thinking about the future would probably prefer to put their faith in a younger player like Pavard, assuming they’re both performing equally well on the pitch.

Hopefully, Debuchy has some good memories from his four-year international spell all the same.