Former Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra has opened up about the time a Premier League club tried to tempt him out of retirement.
Evra, 43, enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at United, leaving the club in 2014 after eight years of success during which he won five Premier League titles, three League Cups and a Champions League.
After exiting Old Trafford for Juventus, he continued his knack of playing in title-winning sides, securing two more league triumphs in Turin as well as a couple of Coppa Italia crowns.
He had a short spell at Marseille in 2017 before a return to the Premier League with West Ham in 2018. The ex-France international then retired while playing for the Hammers.
Since hanging up his boots, Evra has become a popular figure on social media as well as regularly appearing as a guest on podcasts.
He currently boasts 13.7m followers on Instagram.
The Senegal-born former full-back even has his own catchphrase, ‘I love this game,’ he regularly uses the mantra when creating entertaining reels and videos he posts on the platform.
Despite appearing content with his current situation, Evra recently revealed he was not short of suitors who tried to tempt him out of retirement.
Patrice Evra won five Premier League’s at Manchester United (Credit:Getty)
“I was approached by a Premier League team three years ago [in 2021, three years after retiring] to come back to play, but to be honest, I don’t miss football,” he said while appearing on Shane Todd’s ‘Tea With Me’.
“But if you say, ‘Patrice, let’s go we have a game,’ I will train like when I was a professional.
“People don’t understand, some people play football for fun, but I always say, it’s easy to reach the top of the pyramid, but to stay at the top, that’s when you have to make sacrifices. It’s a 24-hour job; you have to eat and sleep football. You have to be dedicated to that.
“When you do that you sacrifice time with your family and with your friends.
“I always tell the story of when I came back home one day, and my son, who was three years old, was crying. I asked why, and he said, ‘Because I hate Manchester United.’
“I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s Liverpool or Chelsea, man, don’t tell me that or I’m going to have a heart attack,’ but I asked why, and he said, ‘Man United took my dad away.'”