Former PSG player Yassine Jebbour retires at age 25 to become a therapist
Do you remember Yassine Jebbour? Well, he used to be a youth player at Paris Saint-Germain and went on to represent Morocco internationally after playing for Rennes, Nancy, Montpellier, and Bastia.
He abruptly ended his football career at the age of 25 in 2016. “I no longer felt comfortable as a player in this world. It stopped by choice, and I felt the desire to experience something else,” he told Nice-Matin. And then, Jebbour suddenly shifted gears. The profession of therapist caught his interest.
Jebbour: “My path was elsewhere. I wanted to experience other things, I had experimented enough”
The former defender, who had been followed by a mental coach since he was 21, who later became his therapist, said, “Why not me?” during a training session at the Gestalt humanist school, specialized in career transitions. “My path was elsewhere. I wanted to experience other things. I thought, why not accompany, open my own practice.”
So, he became a therapist by opening a practice in Nice after a 5-year training. “A very powerful therapy that helps to move forward, based on exploring the past,” explained Jebbour, who also works simultaneously as an impact coach and mentor for footballers. “Considering my DNA, my history, my passions for guidance and football, to combine the two, I needed coaching.”
He almost joined Marseille
According to Yassine Jebbour, the topic of mental health, especially among young people, which has been recently addressed by Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane, and Florian Thauvin, is not taken seriously enough. “There are resistances to that in this environment,” noted the French-Moroccan, who was offered a position by Nasser Larguet (former director of Marseille’s training center) to join OM in the mental health department of the academy before things ultimately did not work out. However, the former player remains very motivated to help and contribute his time to clubs.
