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As reported by Foot Mercato, Ligue 1 strugglers Bordeaux have begun negotiations over the transfer of Marseille’s Spanish defender Álvaro González.
The 32-year-old centre-back is Les Girondins’ priority defensive signing this January and the player’s entourage have entered talks over a move but, the outlet says, it will be necessary to convince the player that the move is the right one.
Both Valencia and Strasbourg have made contact over the player as well in recent days.
As reported by Fabrizio Romano, 21-year-old Lille striker Jonathan David will not be leaving the Ligue 1 champions this month. Arsenal are also now mentioned as a possible destination for David but nothing is advanced between the parties as yet with many clubs in the frame.
In an interview with Radio Canada last month, the player’s agent explained: “The Premier League is a great option for him. I think he likes Spain lots too. These two leagues are the main priorities for him, but nothing is ruled out. You never know with PSG or the big Italian clubs.”
A summer departure for the Canadian striker now seems very likely with Lille expected to make large squad changes at the end of the season.
As reported by RMC, Nantes’ in-demand striker Randal Kolo-Muani says he is unaware of interest from the Bundesliga and elsewhere but maybe close to a deal with Eintracht Frankfurt over a move at the end of the season after his contract expires.
Nantes, however, frustrated at the Bundesliga club’s long pursuit of their player have reportedly referred the case to FIFA – having also complained in the summer over the same situation – with the German club allegedly negotiating with the player before they were technically allowed to do so.
RMC also report that the 23-year-old forward had turned down a move this January to Freiburg, who had offered up to €9m for the player and agreed to loan him back to the Ligue 1 side for the rest of the season.
Speaking after Nantes’ Sunday draw with Monaco, the Frenchman explained: “I’m still focused on my football, I try to work and continue to work to give my all for this club. I don’t think about the future or what the media say… “We’ll talk about everything else at the end of the season. It’s easy for me, I let my family and my agents take care of all that. I only think about the pitch… I don’t know anything about it.”
As reported by L’Équipe, Ligue 1 side Nantes are looking at signing former Bordeaux, Bastia and Angers striker Enzo Crivelli. Having lost fellow striker Renaud Emond (30) to Standard Liege, FCN are keen to bolster their numbers in attack and Crivelli is a leading contender of the many ideas studied by the club.
Crivelli is currently on loan at Antalyaspor from 2020 Turkish champions Istanbul Basaksehir, where the 26-year-old Frenchman contributed 11 league goals to their title-winning campaign and played Champions League football last season. The goals have dried up for the forward, however, after just two strikes in 45 league games.
As reported by RMC, Reims are yet to receive a concrete offer from 19-year-old striker Hugo Ekitike, despite Foot Mercato reporting earlier today an “informal offer” had been given.
Discussions are continuing between Reims and various clubs with Newcastle, West Ham, Tottenham and Dortmund all positioning themselves for the player.
Reims have set a price of €30m with €10m achievable in bonuses and a 25% resale clause for the player to leave in January. Reims are hoping to keep the teenager until the end of the season and make a decision over his future then.
As reported by Fabrizio Romano, Reims are unlikely to accept Newcastle United’s opening offer for the striker while Leicester are also interested.
The young Frenchman featured in our 10 Ligue 1 Players to Watch for 22 as part of the new GFFN100.
This article is taken from the new GFFN 100 2021. The GFFN 100 ranks the top 100 players in French football over the past 12 months, see the full list and read all 100 profiles right here on GFFN.
At times in 2021, it was more than fair, perhaps even gospel, to say that Lucas Paquetá was the best player in France. He was initially derided as a player brought in by Juninho more for his being Brazilian than for anything he had displayed on the pitch, coming from AC Milan at a cost that was roughly half of what the Rossoneri had spent when signing him from Flamengo less than two years earlier. His arrival was a surprise, and given the now-former sporting director’s record in signing his countrymen, there have been far more poor signings than brilliant ones. His place in the squad also seemed curious. The emergence of Maxence Caqueret had been a tonic for the team’s play following the resumption of football in 2020, and with Bruno Guimarães, Houssem Aouar, Jean Lucas and Thiago Mendes also options in central midfield, he hardly seemed a need-based signing.
A late arrival to the club following a European transfer window that was extended owing to COVID-19, Paquetá didn’t make his first start for Lyon until mid-October, in a scrappy 3-2 win over Strasbourg. Playing as part of a midfield three, he turned in a solid if unexceptional display, with Memphis Depay and Karl Toko Ekambi running the show in attack. With competition for places from the aforementioned quartet, and Rudi Garcia favouring a 4-3-3, it wasn’t until later in the season that he began to make a real impact, playing as a number ten with more room for expression, despite the manager’s noted proclivity for somewhat elemental football.
With eight goals and four assists in the second half of the season, Paquetá was the club’s most influential attacker, allowing Lyon to remain in the title race despite dips in form from Toko Ekambi and Tino Kadewere. Moreover, while not the same sort of player as Depay, Paquetá looked to have the combination of star quality, creativity and ability to function as both a creative hub that the Dutchman had, with far more to offer in terms of his work rate and versatility. Knowing that Depay would be off in the summer, his displays were a massive balm for Gones fans, who may have been approaching the summer with no small amount of trepidation.
Indeed, in some ways, Paquetá may even be an upgrade on Depay, but for the amount of goals scored. His doggedness in tracking back and getting stuck in is remarkable. Despite his obvious technical gifts, he has always been ready to get stuck in and work for the good of the team, taking up positions that may be deeper in midfield than he would prefer, having stated that he feels he works best as a number ten. No player on the team last season save Maxence Caqueret made more tackles, and he also offered a surprisingly strong aerial presence, using a deceptive combination of wiry strength and his height to belie the stereotype of the technically gifted Brazilian midfielder.
For his country, too, Paquetá has been immense, as his form at Lyon has more than made up for his rather aimless spell in Italy in the eyes of Tite. Having impressed as a playmaker for Lyon, he was used most often this summer as an attacking midfielder, edging ahead of the likes of Gerson and Philippe Coutinho, and scored a pair of key goals in the knockout rounds as Brazil made the final of the Copa America, losing to Argentina. Building on his fine summer displays, he’s continued to be a regular starter for the Selecão into the autumn, helping the team qualify comfortably for Qatar 2022 by topping the CONMEBOL table.
Clearly a player who is ready to give all for club and country, Paquetá’s travel and exertions are myriad, but they didn’t appear to be affecting his play. He may even have taken a step toward becoming a Lyon legend by coming off the bench against Monaco, despite having played 90 minutes for Brazil in South America less than 48 hours prior. Once on the pitch, he took a scoreless match by the scruff of the neck, including an incredible “blind” pass in the build-up to the match’s final goal in a 2-0 win. A truly heroic display, it only added to his reputation and helped him to be named the Ligue 1 Player of the Month for October, building on his place in the prior campaign’s Team of the Season.
However, a spate of injuries to Kadewere, Islam Slimani, and Moussa Dembélé would see him used as a false nine in some half a dozen matches. While he was surprisingly effective in this role, the physical toll of battling with Ligue 1’s notoriously physical central defenders seems to have sapped him of some of his usual verve. Despite being rested in the Europa League, the team’s qualification having been sealed, he has looked off the pace in the year’s final six weeks.
The hope here, then, is that with Lyon’s unseemly elimination from the Coupe de France owing to fan trouble against Paris FC, a full two-and-a-half weeks off before OL take on Paris Saint-Germain in the new year will leave him reinvigorated and fresh. Given Lyon’s poor form in the league, a return to form from the player the team’s fans have dubbed “Craqueta” can’t come soon enough.
While the Ligue 1 table remains tightly packed below Paris Saint-Germain, with OL only nine points off second at the new year with a game in hand, time will soon become of the essence. If Paquetá can be back to the dynamic, consistently all-action presence that marked the vast majority of 2021, Lyon can be back in the race for the top three, allowing his brilliance to flourish in next year’s Champions League.
Eric Devin
As reported by Foot Mercato, Le Havre’s 21-year-old goalkeeper Yahia Fofana is seeing interest from Angers and Fiorentina.
Fofana has drawn praise after breaking into the HAC team this season, supplanting experienced former Lyon stopper Mathieu Gorgelin (31) as Paul Le Guen’s side fight for promotion to Ligue 1.
However, the player’s contract is up in June which has drawn the attention of Serie A club Fiorentina and Angers who are keen on a transfer this winter, the Ligue 1 club believe they have a good chance of completing the deal this month.
Ligue 1 21/22, Round 21 – 15/1/22
PSG – 2 (Mbappé 32, Kehrer 53)
Gianluigi Donnarumma, 6 – Made a stunning low save from Cardona when one-on-one early on at 0-0 but only faced two more shots on target in a simple win overall. Little to do in truth.
Thilo Kehrer, 6
Marquinhos, 6
Presnel Kimpembe, 5 – He made a crucial flying intervention ahead of Cardona early on but then misjudged Honroat’s skipping ball for Cardona who should have scored seconds later. It was his career summed up in two minutes. Largely assured otherwise but rarely troubled.
Nuno Mendes, 6
Marco Verratti, 7 – One of his most attacking and direct displays in some time. Playing a slightly different role than usual, further forward in the midfield three, he often committed and beat defenders and was party to some sharp Paris interplay. One such mazy run and snap shot resulted in the post being struck.
Ander Herrera, 4
Georginio Wijnaldum, 4
Ángel Di María, 6
Kylian Mbappé, 8 – Played a few gears below his very best but was still comfortably the outstanding player on the pitch, with Marco Verratti his only real peer. He cleverly confused Bizot by whipping a low shot in at the near post between a defenders legs for the opener and worked well with Di María around the box throughout. Sneaks an 8.
Mauro Icardi, 3 – Not for the first time, PSG (mostly Mbappé and Di María) played around him to the point where his presence was almost redundant. The number nine only managed one shot in 79 minutes on the pitch despite this being a comfortable home win for Paris in the end.
Others: Ramos 5, Paredes 5, Danilo 6, Simons 5, Michut 5.
BREST – 0
Marco Bizot, 6
Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel, 6 – Although he was bamboozled by Nuno Mendes to set up the second PSG goal, he enjoyed a statistically solid outing. His 11 tackles and interceptions was nearly double anyone else, no one came close to his 20 pressures in the defensive third and he most notably made a key intervention on Mbappé to prevent a late third.
Brendan Chardonnet, 5
Christophe Hérelle, 5
Jean-Kévin Duverne, 5
Hugo Magnetti, 4
Lucien Agoumé, 4
Romain Faivre, 4
Franck Honorat, 5
Jérémy Le Douaron, 5
Irvin Cardona, 5 – His mobility was a nuisance at times and he was unlucky not to score early on after two excellent interventions but was well contained by PSG for long periods afterwards.
Others: Badji 5, Mbock 5, Mounie 5, Lasne 5, Brassier 5.
As reported by L’Équipe, French national team coach Didier Deschamps could be considering a call up for Nice’s Argentinian born goalkeeper Walter Benítez.
Having never been picked by the Argentine national side, something of a surprise given their goalkeeping issues in recent years, Benítez and his wife obtained French nationality last month and the player now qualifies to play for Les Bleus having been in France for more than five years.
“We’re well integrated, we love France, we feel good here. We said to ourselves that it would be good for our children, and help me in my career,” the 28-year-old keeper told L’Équipe, who is now fluent in French. “When we found out that I’d sign for Nice, I studied French a little in Argentina with my wife but we didn’t understand anything when we arrived. We continued to take lessons and we always had French television and radio on at home.”
Didier Deschamps explained on the subject that “all French players are selectable. I don’t know why he made this choice, but it’s a choice I respect. We’ll look at him like the other selectable players.”
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Julien Maynard of Téléfoot reports tonight that Marquinhos is set to renew his contract with Paris Saint-Germain by at least another two years.
The club captain’s current contract runs until 2024, and his new deal is now expected to run until at least 2026, and include an increased salary.
An official announcement is set to take place soon, as the club tie down the Brazilian over the long-term as one of their most important players.