While at Lille, Ribéry excelled athletically, but developed academic and behavioural problems, which led to Lille releasing him.[12][14] In 2012, during a press conference ahead of Bayern Munich's Champions League tie against his former club Lille, Ribéry explained that he was released from the Lille academy after suffering a broken elbow and that Lille officials had previously wanted to drop him from the academy for being "too small".[15]