Jeremy Mathieu's reason for working in sports shop after retiring from football is nothing to do with money

In April 2025, former Barcelona defender Jeremy Mathieu went viral after retirement when pictures emerged of him working in a sports shop. Mathieu, who joined from Valencia in 2014, went on to play 91 times for Barca and won two La Liga titles as well as the Champions League alongside greats like Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta.

The Frenchman, who scored the winner in an El Clasico victory over Real Madrid, then went on to sign for Portuguese giants Sporting CP - where he made over 100 appearances and won three trophies in Lisbon. An ACL injury in a training session in June 2020 ultimately put an end to his career earlier than Mathieu had intended.

Advert Years later, he appeared in Intersport uniform in a store located in Cabries-Plan de Campagne, near Aix-en-Provence. Mathieu posed for a picture with two young fans in the store and the image quickly circulated.

Fans were stunned to see the 42-year-old working in the sports chain but there was no explanation given for how he had ended up in the job. Jeremy Mathieu explained why he chose to work at sports shop That information remained private until Mathieu went on the BeIN Sports programme Safe Play and revealed all about his change of career to sales assistant - explaining it was not for financial reasons.

Jeremy Mathieu poses with two fans in a sports shop. Image: X@BarcaUniversal "If I'm working at Intersport, it's because something's going on that's causing me a lot of problems," he said.

"I can only say that I'm in the middle of a lawsuit. I will not do it forever.

It was to have a social life." Mathieu suffered from depression following his retirement from the game and did try and play at amateur level with Luynes Sports in Regional 2. It was Loic Loval-Landre, his former teammate at Sochaux, who helped him find the job at Intersport after noticing his struggles and becoming aware that he would rarely leave his house.

"He knew I wanted to leave the house for a bit," Mathieu confirmed. "I had been doing nothing for a while.

We were chatting, and he told me there was a vacant position."