Ligue 1 side Lyon sought to somewhat assure their fans this evening that despite the Italian government’s decision to play all domestic fixtures without fans for the rest of the month, OL’s clash with Juventus in Turin, the 2nd leg of their Champions’ League Round of 16 duel set for 17th March, has not yet been forced to occur behind closed doors.

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OL released the following statement:

“Olympique Lyonnais has taken note of the information coming from Italy concerning making the return leg between Juventus and OL to take place next March 17 a match between closed doors. For the moment, this information has not been confirmed to us, neither by UEFA nor by Juventus. Other solutions are also conceivable and envisaged. For OL supporters who have already purchased their ticket for this match, we will get back to them as soon as we know precisely where and under what conditions the match will be played.”

Speaking in an interview with L’Équipe, Lyon’s 22-year-old central midfielder Bruno Guimarães was asked about comparisons made in his native Brazil about him to Real Madrid midfielder Casemiro.

“I am not his rival, but I am competition. We are talking about a truly great player here. Casemiro has achieved so many things in Europe, he has won so much, whilst I am merely just starting out. I am here to leave my mark on Lyon, win titles and obtain the stature of a great player.”

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Speaking in an interview with France Football, 31-year-old Angers central defender Romain Thomas documented the surprise weekend that he endured, with the LFP deciding on Friday to suspend all Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 action until further notice owing to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“These measures are essential. Health is the most important thing, for football, we will figure that out afterwards. The big news item is childbirth.”

Thomas is already father to a girl called Mila, who will be 4 on 10th May, but him and his wife Sabrina are expecting their second child at the end of this month.

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“At first, we took it a little lightly, but for the past ten days, the doc (Anthony Tondut) had been telling us to be careful. At the Baumette training centre, there is hand sanitiser everywhere. When I saw that all the leagues and all sports started to stop almost everywhere, I said to myself that it was getting serious. Friday afternoon, when the staff announced the suspension of 1st team training, the doc warned us that just because we are top athletes does not mean that we will have any special treatment (from the healthcare system) if we get the coronavirus. In Angers, I saw that there were people aged 25-30 who were in intensive care, although they did not necessarily show signs of weakness at the start. We must be very vigilant.”

“The doc reminded us of the recommendations (washing hands regularly, avoiding shaking hands or embracing each other…) and recommended that we avoid places where there are people, like public transport, cinemas, theatres… He also told us to take our temperature if, one morning, we felt feverish or tired. But he also insisted on staying positive and that there was no reason to blacken everything, to panic and to remain cloistered at home, shutters closed. We will avoid large shopping centers and confined spaces. We will go more outdoors: go for a bike ride, go to the outdoor play areas. You have to go on living, maybe being a little more careful.”

“The decision to suspend full 1st team training sessions is a smart decision even if it changes our daily lives. The training centre is only open to injured players, who who have a strict time slot to go in one by one. All those not injured are forbidden to go there, even for the running exercises that the fitness coach Benoît Pickeu asks us to do, in the individualised programs that he sent us by email. Tuesday and Friday, we will just pick up our GPS trackers in the morning and bring them back in the evening so that the staff can see the intensity of our work. Everyone will do the work at home.”

“On Friday, after training was cancelled, I went home. With Vincent Manceau and Pierrick Capelle, we said to each other: “Look, it’s nice outside, now is the moment to do some mowing.” So I mowed the lawn in the garden, it allowed me to think about something else. You have to find things to do. In the evening, I had a look at the latest news to remain update and afterwards, we watched TV as a family, a little bit of Koh-Lanta before going to bed. We laughed, we said to each other it was a strange way to prepare before a match (Angers were due to play Amiens on Saturday night).”

“I am struggling with having nothing to do. This Sunday, with Pierrick Capelle, we reserved a small tennis court to hit the ball for an hour. For food, we must be careful and avoid stockpiling. This interruption of the league is reminiscent of the summer break but we are not on vacation. We must be ready for Ligue 1 to resume. I did not purchase considerable food reserves. I saw that many French people were rushing into the stores. For now, we have what we need in our cupboards. We’ll go shopping when we need to, I’m not in too much of a panic about it. Compared to a normal shop, I merely added some hydroalcoholic gel to the shopping trolley.”

Speaking in an interview with Ouest-France, Ligue 1 side Nantes’ owner and president Waldemar Kita confirmed that he would be providing all club employees with fully paid leave from work amid the ongoing COVID-19 saga.

“As I have said to each and every one of them, if you need to stay home to look after your children, no problem. Family is the priority. Everyone will receive their full salary. We will sort it out. People need to feel comfortable. I am not going to talk about financial performance and say instead that the health of people is the priority. I don’t want to talk about what happens next, we will adapt week by week, day by day. And at the moment that the virus stagnates, perhaps we will be back in action, in the image of China right now. In one, three or six months. We will adapt. This season could very well be prolonged until the end of June. The priority is to first respect the health rules. That is what I informed club employees of, first the guys on the football side, then the administrative personnel.”

“I have had the opportunity to work in the medical world (owning a viagra business), and it became clear very quickly to me that this virus was going to take on considerable proportions. At the beginning, people thought I was crazy, people were saying, why is he getting worked up like this. Today, my phone does not stop ringing, but I don’t take any pride from that. I just wanted to say that football, TV rights and money are not the priority ahead of the human race.”

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In the fifth episode of this extraordinary series, ex-OGC Nice President Gauthier Ganaye joins us to discuss his journey to becoming the youngest Ligue 1 club president in history, his role in a tumultuous 6 months with Les Aiglons, lunch with Raphaël Varane, love in Leeds, Patrick Cryne’s impact on his career, trouble ahead of French football with the DNCG & Mediapro, and much more.

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L’Équipe report that Ligue 1 leaders PSG have recently made an approach for 17-year-old Atletico Madrid midfielder Javier Serrano.

The versatile youngster is under contract with Atleti until June 2022. Les Parisiens’ intentions for the player would be for him to join their U19s set-up in the first instance if they can convince the Spanish youth international to make a move this summer. Serrano has spent a majority of the 2019/20 campaign training with Diego Simeone’s 1st team set-up.

His release clause currently stands at €26m, but sources close to the situation believe that a deal would be struck at a considerably smaller price. A handful of other clubs from outside Spain have also recently made an approach.

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Speaking on BeIN Sports, UNFP President Philippe Piat, the organisation that protects French footballers, professional and amateur, discussed the idea of abandoning the 2019/20 campaign altogether owing to the ongoing COVID-19 disruption and instead instituting a 22-team strong Ligue 1 for the 2020/21 campaign.

“We don’t know how this season is going to finish. In the hypothesis where we have to come to an end now, there will be injustices. To minimise those, next year, why not have a division with 22 clubs in it?”

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France Football report that Marseille and Lille are amongst a host of clubs interested in acquiring the services of 26-year-old French central midfielder Adrien Thomasson from Strasbourg.

Under contract until 2021, Thomasson has shown an ability to play skilfully across the midfield, having scored eight goals and laid on two assists so far this season.

OM will be forced to turn towards players they can acquire inexpensively this summer, and with a little over 12 months remaining on his current deal, Thomasson fits that mould, with André Villas-Boas praising the player publicly at the end of January.

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Our colleagues at Foot Mercato report that PSG Sporting Director Leonardo has in recent days made somewhat of a u-turn in opening contract extension conversations with French international left-back Layvin Kurzawa and club captain Thiago Silva, both of who’s deals expire in June.

Having initially wanted to see the back of both players, Leo has now begun conversations with the pair to extend their stays at PSG. However, Kurzawa remains on the fence about this, with him looking into the possibility of making a move abroad. Leo was convinced to reopen these conversations in part because of the expected mess to the upcoming transfer window that COVID-19 will cause, but also because post-January the Frenchman has proved he can perform as an admirable understudy to Juan Bernat.

Silva has on the other hand been very keen to extend his stay in the French capital, but it remains to be seen what sort of deal Leonardo is offering the 35-year-old, both in terms of length and whether there will be a wage drop.

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Among names like Chouiar, Camavinga, and Osimhen – players who have experienced extraordinary breakout campaigns in Ligue 1 this year – there is one that seems certain to surface in a different country come next season. Gabriel dos Santos Magalhães is that name, and after numerous reports linking the 22-year-old defender to Premier League clubs like Everton, Arsenal, and Chelsea, the central defender’s potential departure from Lille feels imminent.

But, is Gabriel, with less than two full seasons of Ligue 1 under his belt, worthy of the hype and the €30m valuation that has been floating around? His physical attributes, ability on the ball, and unique profile make a compelling case that yes, Gabriel deserves the attention that he has been receiving from old and new admirers alike. 

Recently dubbed a “colossus” by freelance writer Romain Molina, Gabriel is an impressively imposing figure in Lille’s defence. At 1.90m, the central defender is well-equipped to deal with some of Ligue 1’s more physical forwards like Júlio Tavares and Moussa Dembélé. Usually alongside 36-year-old José Fonte in a central defensive pairing, Gabriel is fittingly mobile, as his Portuguese partner does not have the same pace and acceleration that he had at the peak of his powers. Additionally, Gabriel excels in utilising his physical attributes effectively, as the defender is as capable of bullying opponents off the ball in shoulder-to-shoulder challenges as he is gaining advantageous positions when jostling in aerial duels.

The pairing of José Fonte and Gabriel has proven beneficial both to the team’s defensive solidity as well as to the development of the 22-year-old, something Gabriel spoke to with L’Équipe: 

“As soon as José arrived at the club he spoke with me. He encouraged me to work hard and to make the most of the opportunity that would come one day. He taught me a lot, on and off the pitch.”

Fonte, very much the elder statesman and club captain of Lille, has taken this mentorship role in stride, repeatedly stating that one of his primary duties is indeed to “to show the way to the young kids we have.” If Gabriel is to leave for England, this experience of playing alongside and learning from a model professional with over 300 appearances in the Premier League would certainly ease the difficulties of adaptation that the Brazilian would face. 

In fact, transformation and change are two things not entirely new to Gabriel. At the age of just 13, the young Brazilian left his home of São Paulo for the first time to join Avaí FC, his first professional club. Almost 700 kilometres south of São Paulo, it was in Florianópolis where Gabriel experienced cold and homesickness for the first time. A week after his arrival the young defender had already returned home.

While back in São Paulo, Gabriel’s father encouraged him to reconsider this unique opportunity that he had – one that many hopeful teenagers from his area and background are not afforded. After two weeks of reflection, Gabriel left home for the second time, this time for good. Three years later, Gabriel’s sacrifices and hard work were rewarded with his first professional contract at just 16. Fast-forward two more years and at 18 the defender had already made his first first-team appearance for Avaí, scoring his first goal to boot! 

As a centre-back for Christophe Galtier’s Lille, Gabriel sees a lot of the ball. On average, the 22-year-old completes the most passes per 90 for Les Dogues and is also the primary passing outlet when the team’s electric attackers try to beat an offside trap or break past opposing defenders. The likes of Nicolas Pépé, Jonathan Ikoné, and Victor Osimhen have all been on the receiving-end of Gabriel’s over-the-top long balls that attempt to find the streaking forwards. 

Such an ability, as well as Gabriel’s defensive contributions, essentially ousted former club captain Adama Soumaoro – now at Genoa – from Lille. It was Soumaoro’s thigh injury, suffered in February of 2019, that offered Gabriel his first-team chance, and, in following Fonte’s advice, Gabriel made the most of it. When Soumaoro returned to fitness his Brazilian counterpart had usurped him, his starting spot undeniably handed over to the colossus from São Paulo. 

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With his future almost assuredly elsewhere, it will be interesting to see how Gabriel’s career develops. From leaving his family at 13 to moving to France at 19, it is evident that the young Brazilian is confident, ambitious, and adaptable. His time in Ligue 1 made evident his abilities on the ball and his physical dominance, two qualities that will surely make him a welcome addition to whichever club might win the race for his signature this summer.

G.M.