He was a great player with incredible acceleration but he had limited brain abilities and it kinda stopped him from being among the very best.
Deschamps was right for not trying to take him back in the national team when Ribery wanted to. You don't win the World Cup with this kind of guys unfortunately.
He was also part of the 2010 fiasco in South Africa. Had he been a smart leader, he could easily have made the team stop its strike. Alas, he was not.