OM-PSG on the Assembly Benches

“Yah!  Always the same ones who are on the bench!”

“On my mother, I am vexed!”

Coming from America, I find it surprising how involved politicians are in sports in France.  In the US, Presidents and politicians may be seen at sporting events and even may comment on their favorite teams, but in general sporting events are not seen as political events.  I’ve learned that this isn’t necessarily the case in France.  This is especially true with the French National team, which has been given the nickname “Black, Blanc, Beur,” and has become a symbol of the new, multicultural France.  Some politicians (Le Pen) even made public speeches on how the the team wasn’t “French enough” after their wins in the 1998 World Cup and the 2000 European Championship.

This debate typically flares up whenever France plays a former colony team– such as last year’s match against Tunisia.  At the beginning of the match the Marsellaise (French National Anthem) was booed loudly by sections of the crowd, most of who were French citizens of Magreb descent.  The post-match commentary largely centered not on the win of the French team, but the political implications of the match.  Such booing has come to be used by ethnic-Arab French football fans to protest the racial, social and economic discrimination suffered by those not fortunate enough to be among the stars of Les Bleus. Booing France’s anthem has become a common tactic for drawing attention away from the largely black and Arab faces that defend France’s honor on the soccer field, and back to the communities from which they come in the decrepit housing projects surrounding the Stade de France and other suburbs of Paris.

But the French government pushed back– and hard.  The Minister of Sports (the fact that there is a political office for sports is just incredible to me!) and Sarkozy (French President) were infuriated– and held several crisis meetings about the issue.  Publicly, they were infuriated at the French Football Federation for not shutting down the match immediately.  But Sarkozy was just getting started.  Following the crisis meetings between the President and concerned cabinet members, Health and Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin grimly declared the decision had been taken that “any match during which our national anthem is whistled will be stopped immediately”.

So what does this have to do with OM and this cartoon at Hatem’s expense?

Given how politicized the National team is– I shouldn’t have been surprised when the cancellation of the clash between France’s largest clubs (in terms of fan base) was brought up in the National Assembly this week.  But, given my American tendencies, of course I was.

The questions about the postponement of the OM-PSG match and the fan riots/mayhem were asked by Dominique Tian (representative from Bouches du Rhone, outside of Marseille) to Rama Yade (the Secretary of State for Sport).

Here are the questions:

“- Has the Football League fulfilled its role? The precautionary principle in health as public safety, should it not require the cancellation the match on Friday or no later than Saturday? Is the league’s rule which requires the confirmation of the 3rd player’s diagnosis effective? Is it not, Minister, the responsibility of government to enact a rule common to all sports federations in order to reach an acceptable time frame for cancellation of game? “

The latter responded by stating in part: “Because of the high risk of violence in an event such the OM-PSG game,  the principle of caution should apply. So I asked the sports authorities to be able to identify, anticipate and prevent such situations in the future.  Fans should expect further delays. “

This comic is able to pick at two of the French presses’ favorite targets– the politicians and Hatem Ben Arfa– by mocking the effectiveness and moodiness of both the Assembly members and Hatem….

I tend to be pretty protective of Hatem, but I love these particular artists’ cartoons.  If you have a chance (and you speak a little French), check out their blog here.  They have some other funny ones where Heinze is mocking the threat of Gignac….

Warning:  Any racist comments on this post will be deleted and result in the comments section being locked.  You’ve been warned!

Let’s start with one of our most symbolic alums, Marius Trésor. Marius is one of those players that were touted as the best ever since he was a youngster. The West Indian left his native Guadeloupe as a teenager to come and dominate in Ajaccio in the late sixties as a nineteen year-old (he was born in 1950). It took him all of six months to become the guy to watch. Quickly rising his profile at 20, Marius Trésor started in the French national Team in 1971, at the young age of 21 and never left it. He gained throughout his careers 64 caps, scoring five goals, which at the time was a record.

Most of his international career where he helped the team win a Coupe de France in 1976. He arrived at the Vélodrome in exchange for the young Rolland Courbis who was then headed to Ajaccio. He started at the left-back position in Marseille and the National team as Bernard Bosquier had seniority in both and was central defender. But BB was smart enough to understand quickly that he would lose his spot to the youngster if he didn’t move. Bosquier decided to become a midfielder, letting Marius Trésor for with Jean-Pierre Adams the legendary “Black Guard” (“La Garde Noire”) which stayed on for seven years and led France to the Euros in 1984.

In 1976, he became the first black captain of the National Team and led the Renaissance of the French Team that would go on the be eliminated by Germany in the semi finals of the 1982 World Cup in Spain (That game has been called one of the ten best matches in the history of the sport. 26 years later, it is still legendary. And still one of the rare occasions where Trésor scored). After that fateful match when France lost in the penalties to Germany after having led 3-1 in the first half of the extra-time, Beckenbauer said Trésor was the only other defender that intimidated him.

During his captaincy, France won the Euros and went to the semi finals of the World Cup, not bad. After an injury in the beginning of the 1979 season, Marseille lost their captain too and went to the Second Division. After stating he would want to be back, OM eventually sold him to Claude Baez’s Bordeaux for a huge transfer fee. At 30, which at the time was the moment of retirement for most players, he resurrected his and went on for a few more seasons.

As part of one of the FIFA 100, Marius Trésor is unanimously considered to be one of the best defensive players of all time and certainly will stay in the legend for both France and Marseille. He is at the moment part of the Girondins de Bordeaux staff.

As for Jean-Pierre Adams, after a botched anaesthesia during a knee operation in 1982, he entered a coma. He is still in the same coma, 27 years later, his wife by his side, living off of a settlement and donations from famous footballers including Tresor.

Keepers: Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille), Cédric Carasso (Toulouse).
Defenders: Eric Abidal (Barcelone/ESP), Gaël Clichy (Arsenal/ENG), Julien Escudé (FC Séville/ESP), Rod Fanni (Rennes), William Gallas (Arsenal/ENG), Philippe Mexès (AS Rome/ITA), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal/ENG), Sébastien Squilacci (FC Séville/ESP)
Midfielders: Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Real Madrid), Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Samir Nasri (Arsenal/ENG), Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon)
Strikerss: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea/ENG), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Thierry Henry (Barcelone/ESP), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich/GER).

On that note, I’m back to the books.

Steve mandanda was last season’s real revelation, its unsung hero if you will. he became our number 1 keeper and is now France’s too. It is why I’ve been particularly disgusted when the press decided to start lynching what they adored yesterday.

After two weeks and three consecutives matches (Caen, Tunisia and Paris Sg) where he was deemed “responsible ” for goals for the first time in his career, a campaign was launched. The pro-Lloris people started highlighting the fact that Steve was taking more goals than last season and that Lloris seemed better.

Well it was for me a relief to read last tuesday’s France Football where it is stated that statistically, Mandanda is by far the best keeper in the Ligue 1.
Indeed, Steve did 159 blocks in 13 games which places him i first position, followed by Christophe revault (117 in 13 games), Nicola Penneteau (95), Ruffier (92) and Letizi (83). This is as much a testament to his talent as it is to the lack of skill in our defense. our achilles’ heel is out defense, nothing new but if there’s ONE player who sure is doing his job, it’s Mandanda. Same thing with the NT, where even Phillippe Méxès can’t seem to play well and Gallas has been looking phantomatic lately. I really believe steve to be the best in the League by far, Lloris and Douchez being both extremely talented but clearly behind.

We’ll see how it goes since Mandanda is once again in top form, having been elected player of the Match in our game against Lille. Tonight he’ll be at Anfield and will be sollicited for sure. I believe he can help us get a point or more.

Anyway, here’s the video:

Arsenal finally gets Samir Nasri.

First of all, the latest news comes from France Football and is certainly not the least important news of the day. Samir Nasri who has been linked with the Gunners for about two months now finally signed with Arsenal. The contract is reportedly for four years and Marseille will receive 17 million euros (a little more than previously announced). After having played 121 games and scored 11 goals in Ligue 1 with Marseille ever since José Anigo threw him in with the big boys in 2004, Samir Nasri has been considered a fan’s favorite at the Vélodrome mainly for his origins but also because he represented the return of the Minots to the forefront (alongside Flamini at the time) and a bright future for the club. I will write a little more about Samir when I get back home to give im the proper send-off but his departure should have happened differently.
Good luck to him.

Bakary Koné still hasn’t signed with us.

Now let’s get updated on the Bakary Koné situation. Baky has voiced some strong feelings on his personal website stating how he was about to leave last season and could have but had a deal with President Maurice Cohen about how Nice wouldn’t get in his way if he wanted to leave this year and wouldn’t be too greedy on the asking price. Apparently, the two parties even came to an agreement on a mention, the now famous “market price” that Nice would ask for. Baky Koné felt betrayed by the Nice staff. They did not feel that way at all. President Cohen was pretty clear in his explanation when he answered his player. He stated that when he wanted to leave last year and was evaluated at 6-8 million by the “market” he already felt he was more of a 10 million player and set the price at that. He also added that after an incredible season (that’s true) and an exceptionnal African Cup of Nations (I’d be less positive about that), he scored 14 goals and was evn classy enough to let Ederson shoot the last penalty in the last matchday to make sure the future Lyon player would have a proper goodbye with his public.

Koné evidently is one of the classiest players out there and his tiff with the Nice wouldn’t ruin his reputaion with the fans over there. Frédéric Antonetti said he would welcome him back with open arms if the deals didn’t go through.

For the moment, Koné is officially injured and Cohen has apparently shut down any possibility of the player going to Marseille this year. Yet Pape Diouf still assured that the negociations were still on. I’m guessing that with Samir Nasri officially gone, the perspective of having Mathieu Valbuena still play on the right side of our attack while Nasri and Ben Arfa were respectively in the playmaking position and on the left side is no longer an option (I know this sounds incredible but in the last two weeks, despite a lot of declarations from all parties involved, there was a wild rumor that with SpongeBob – Owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus – would want to keep Samir one more season. He did it with Ribéry two seasons ago and seemed set on doing it again.). Now with Samir gone, we have enough dough to get this deal done. Let’s not lose another great player for a matter of 500.000 euros, gentlemen.

Let’s now focus a little bit on the infirmary.

I hate this part but we can pretty much pinpoint our poor season start to Mamadou Niang and Samir Nasri’s simultaneous injuries last year at the same time. Both players got injured and Marseille wasn’t really ready until November. Had we had more luck we may hae had been able to bother Bordeaux and Lyon a little more than we did. Anyways, this season, we have some pretty important players already in the infirmary or finally getting out of it.

The saddest news is that André Ayew got injured and won’t partake in the Evian preparation. The young Ghanean international hurt his ankle against Bastia on Saturday. His ankle will heal but I hope his shortened preparation won’t mirror Samir Nasri’s who had trouble looking like himself until March of this year.

Another newbie hurt is fresh new third-keeper Hilaire Munoz who got injured on Thursday morning while ha was training. The third keeper whom I don’t know and haven’t even heard of before (He’s coming from the local club of Cassis, the nearby village where Frank Leboeuf was born and many player live). I didn’t even have the time to seek some informtion on the dude that he’s already sidelined.

Another bad news (I guess it is “technically” bad news), Karim Ziani was pretty badly injured when he tore left-thigh muscle, an injury that could necessitate six weeks of rest. The odd thing is, after the altercation he had last season with Eric Gerets during the Carquefou match, Karim Ziani was supposed to be gone by now. And he’s not. I’ve even seen him exchanging jokes with the coach. So his future is unknown but maybe Gerets will want to keep him. It’s apparently entirely his decision to make.

Someone who will soon be leaving the hands of our doctors and chiropractors is Mathieu Valbuena. Last season’s revelation was injured just before the Strasbourg game and cancelled his vacation to go back and forth from Marseille to Bordeaux and to make sure he would be ready for the Champion’s League preliminary games. After the last MRI scheduled on the 21st, mathieu who is at the moment in Evian with the rest of the team will be fully fit to join his teammates. “The Moped”, as he’s affectionnately called by his coach, will be followed more closely this season. He’s fully aware that his status has changed and that the marseille staff expect him to take over Samir Nasri’s spot behind the strikers. He’ll get a whole new set of responsibilities and will have to be worthy of the trust.

Another key player that is practically out is Julien Rodriguez. The “Boss” missed a lot of games last season and with the new compettion, he’ll be supposed to be the starter, alongside Hilton. He has proven many times before that he’s a world-class defender if he’s healthy. His string of injuries have showed how much weight he’s put on i the past few months and even he confessed to being humiliated twice and won’t want it to happen again. One of the newbies called up by Domenech when Thuram left the French National Team, he’ll have a real challenge, at 28, now that France are seemingly headed into a new direction. People like Didier Deschamps have long said that he deserved to be in the French NT, let’s start by earning back that spot in the Marseille squad.

El Amin Erbate is presented to the press.

While everybody and their third-cousin was focused on Bakary Koné not coming, El Amin Erbate (the right ortograph, I’m sorry I misspelled it all this time) has been presented to the press right before the players and the staff left for Evian and Eric Gerets expressed his fondness of the player and how much he liked his different performances (notably against France and Belgium this past winter) and how much he expected of him. I’ve seen Erbate play a few more times since I heard he was coming and he’s one of those defenders you don’t notice on the pitch because the striker doesn’t get enough time to breathe or to try anything to make him “shine”. He just seems slow but somehow manages to be everywhere just before the forwards can. I’m looking forward to seeing him play with us. If he is half as classy as us as he is with the Morroccan team, let’s just say, he’ll become a fan’s favourite.

La Victoire est à Nous.

Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of France winning their World Cup and to celebrate it, France 98 will face an international team of superstars for charity at the Stade de France. All in all, it i no less than 10 ex-Marseille players who will be present on the pitch or on the bench in Saint-Denis: Fabien Barthez, Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly, Franck Leboeuf, Bixente Lizarazu, Alain Boghossian, Didier Deschamps, Robert Pires, Christophe Dugarry and Sonny Anderson.
Add Zidane (he’s an honorary player, being the local hero and all) and that’s an entire team!

France 98 coached by Aimé Jacquet

Keepers : Barthez, Charbonnier, Lama, Ramé
Defenders : Blanc, Desailly, Leboeuf, Lizarazu, Candela, Thuram
Midfielders : Boghossian, Deschamps, Vieira, Djorkaeff, Karembeu, Zidane, Pires, Micoud
Strikers : Dugarry, Guivarc’h, Diomède, Henry, Trezeguet, Anelka, Wiltord

Technically, Ulrich Ramé, Johan Micoud, Nicolas Anelka and Silvain Wiltord are not World Cup winners but special circumstances. Ramé wasn’t the 4th keeper either, Lionel Létizi was. Him and Nico Anelka were part of the 6 players who got kicked out during the night (alongside Sabri Lamouchi, Ibrahim Ba, Martin Djetou and Pierre Laigle. Or was it Tony Vairelles? I always mix these two on this aprticular matter). Wiltord, Ramé and Micoud won the Euro 2000 though so they’re part of the legend too.

World All Stars coached by Arsène Wenger and Hristo Stoïtchkov

Keepers : Vitor Baia (POR), Buffon (ITA), Kameni (CAM)
Defenders : Cocu (HOL), Couto (POR), F. de Boer (HOL), Hierro (ESP), Le Saux (ANG), Song (CAM)
Midfielders: Boban (CRO), Davids (HOL), Jorgensen (DAN), Juninho (BRA), Kharpin (RUS), Litmanen (FIN), Saïb (ALG)
Strikers : Sonny Anderson (BRA), Batistuta (ARG), Figo (POR), Pauleta (POR), Sheringham (ANG), Suker (CRO), Eto’o (CAM)

That’s all for now. I’ll be abck tomorrow morning with some more news about “Drogbathon”, We’ll discuss the first three friendlies we lost and I’ll try to give Samir Nasri his deserved goodbye.

Peace

GOALKEEPERS :
Grégory Coupet (Lyon)
Mickaël Landreau (Paris SG)
Sébastien Frey (Fiorentina)
Steve Mandanda (Marseille)

DEFENDERS :
Eric Abidal (FC Barcelona)
Jean-Alain Boumsong (Lyon)
François Clerc (Lyon)
Julien Escudé (FC Sevilla)
Patrice Evra (Manchester United)
William Gallas (Arsenal)
Philippe Mexès (AS Roma)
Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich)
Lilian Thuram (FC Barcelona)
Sébastien Squillaci (Lyon)

MIDFIELDERS :
Alou Diarra (Bordeaux)
Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth)
Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal)
Claude Makelele (Chelsea)
Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon)
Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan)

STRIKERS :
Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea)
Hatem Ben Arfa (Lyon)
Karim Benzema (Lyon)
Djibril Cissé (Marseille)
Bafétimbi Gomis (Saint-Etienne)
Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona)
Florent Malouda (Chelsea)
Sidney Govou (Lyon)
Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich)
Samir Nasri (Marseille)

The bigger surprise is the arrival of Bafétimbi Gomis who was still hesitating between France and Sénégal. This is a touchy point for me who is in the same situation as him, both french and senegalese and Domenech will make him play against Ecuador on May 27th for sure just to make sure he plays for France from now on. I justy hope ehe ends up playing a lot with the french team and doesn’t end up on the long list of french/senegalese players who never played afte that (Oumar Dieng, Bernard Mendy, Edouard Cissé, Lamine Sakho, Ibrahim Ba). I really hope he gets to that Patrick Vieira, Patrice Evra status in the future. Best of luck to him.

Keepers: Grégory Coupet (Lyon), Mickaël Landreau (Paris SG), Sébastien Frey (Fiorentina/ITA), Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille)

Defenders: Eric Abidal (FC Barcelona/SPA), Jean-Alain Boumsong (Lyon), Gaël Clichy (Arsenal/ENG), François Clerc (Lyon), Matthieu Delpierre (Stuttgart/GER), Julien Escudé (FC Séville/SPA), Patrice Evra (Manchester United/ENG), Willam Gallas (Arsenal/ENG), Gaël Givet (Marseille), Philippe Mexès (AS Rome/ITA), Adil Rami (Lille), Bakary Sagna (Arsenal/ANG), Sébastien Squillaci (Lyon), Lilian Thuram (FC Barcelone/ESP)

Midfielders: Mathieu Bodmer (Lyon), Alou Diarra (Bordeaux), Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth/ANG), Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal/ANG), Claude Makelele (Chelsea/ANG), Rio Mavuba (Lille), Samir Nasri (Marseille), Jérémy Toulalan (Lyon), Jérôme Rothen (Paris SG), Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan/ITA)

Strikers: Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea/ENG), Hatem Ben Arfa (Lyon), Karim Benzema (Lyon), Jimmy Briand (Rennes), Djibril Cissé (Marseille), Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona/SPA), Florent Malouda (Chelsea/ENG), Sidney Govou (Lyon), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich/GER), Florent Sinama-Pongolle (Recreativo Huelva/SPA), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille)