Leonardo Jardim always planned for departures and his side’s 6-1 demolition of Marseille shows they will not relinquish their Ligue 1 crown without a fightBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsIt is 15 January 2017. Monaco are top of Ligue 1. Leonardo Jardim’s side left Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome with a triumphant 4-1 win and three points to move them above Nice. And there they remained until Valère Germain rounded off an injury-time counterattack to seal a win against St Étienne and the Ligue 1 title in May. That victory against Marseille included a double from Bernardo Silva, a delightful lob from Thomas Lemar and an 89th-minute cameo from Kylian Mbappé. Up to this point, Mbappé had...
Lyon top the table after Ligue 1’s first match day after a 4-0 win over Strasbourg – an emphatic validation for their reconfigured attackBy Adam White and Eric Devin for Get French Football NewsIt seemed too familiar for Lyon in the early going, even if the faces were different. Nabil Fékir is flagged offside, Mariano Díaz finds himself in a good position but shoots straight into the hands of the Strasbourg goalkeeper Bingourou Kamara, and Memphis Depay, hugging the touchline, foolishly concedes a throw-in. Fékir and Lyon’s three other attackers, Depay, Díaz and Bertrand Traoré, looked set to dazzle without any end product, their skill on the ball for nought as they struggled to break down a side who looked...
Neymar’s move to PSG from Barcelona will make him the first player in 85 years to more than double the previous transfer record. An already inflated environment will feel the consequencesBernabé Ferreyra, according to his River Plate team-mate José Manuel ‘El Charro’ Moreno, never used to let his status as the world’s most expensive player bother him. “Bernabé earned as much money as he wanted but he was not concerned with keeping it,” he said. “He gave other people a lot of money, without asking for anything in return. When he shook your hand, you could be sure that you had a friend for the rest of your life.”But 85 years since the Argentinian striker moved from Club Atlético Tigre...
Barcelona inserted the Brazilian’s €222m buyout clause last year as a Not For Sale sign but playing second fiddle to Messi and the benefits of a world-record transfer have seemingly turned his headAt the end of Barcelona’s comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in March, their hero leapt on to the advertising boards at the north end of the Camp Nou, fans surging forward at his feet, still barely able to believe what they had just seen.At first he swayed a little but they held him steady and so he stood above them, fist raised, taking it in. From below, a match photographer, Santiago Garcés, pointed his camera. Within two days, 70 million people had seen the picture of the night, which...
If the buying period was shorter the playing out of footballer frustrations would be over in a few days rather than dragging on all through the summerIn newspaper terms this time of year has long been known as the silly season; everyone on their holidays, very little taking place in sport or politics, nothing much to report except exaggerated human interest stories or increasingly inane speculation.In football terms that still applies. Everton made their earliest start to a season the other night and despite their entire European campaign hanging on the result against Ruzomberok it still felt like a mid-summer friendly. Ronald Koeman even excused a below-par performance by claiming you could not expect 100% from players after a mere...