Adil Rami open to France return, wants to be at EURO 2020

Speaking in an interview with Le Parisien, 34-year-old Fenerbahce central defender Adil Rami confirmed his desire to leave the Turkish club and set himself a lofty ambition of making Didier Deschamps’ squad for EURO 2020.

“With my entourage, we are listening. We receive a lot of calls from the Middle East, for example. Why not France though? It would please me to show that I am still here, in my country. Nothing is impossible, I continue to dream about why not making it to EURO 2020… I do not want to play in Ligue 2. I am a real leader, I can bring things to a defence. I hear the critics and I want them to swallow their words.”

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Schalke, West Ham & Crystal Palace eyeing Fodé Ballo-Touré (AS Monaco)

Our colleagues at Foot Mercato report that 23-year-old left-back Fodé Ballo-Touré could be the subject of last-minute offers in this January window.

The Monaco man has slowly worked his way back into starting XI territory after being cast aside by former boss Leonardo Jardim. West Ham United and Crystal Palace continue to watch his performances with interest, whilst Schalke 04 have made several approaches to the Principality side about doing a deal for the ex-Lille full-back.

However, ASM have no intention of seeing the player depart this month.

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Timothy Weah suffers injury setback after 1st competitive game following 6 month layoff

Lille have confirmed that 19-year-old Timothy Weah has suffered a hamstring injury setback last night in his first competitive match in 6 months. The player had been on the pitch for just 10 minutes vs Marseille before no longer being able to continue.

The United States international sustained an injury in the area that had previously been causing him trouble and which kept him out for nearly half-a-year. Today, Les Dogues confirmed that Weah has suffered a hamstring tear.

LOSC have not provided a timeline for the teenager’s return, but confirmed earlier today in a press release that they will work with the player to develop a special regime to ensure that he does not suffer the same fate upon his next return to competitive matches.

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Neymar trained normally for PSG today, Presnel Kimpembe & Abdou Diallo back

This morning’s training session at the Camp des Loges was accompanied with a series of pieces of good news for PSG manager Thomas Tuchel, just over 48 hours away from the club’s 1st leg of their Round of 16 knock-out clash with Borussia Dortmund.

Kimpembe was involved, appearing to have fully recovered from his thigh problem – internal sources claim that the French international is fully fit to start against Dortmund should Tuchel select him, according to RMC.

Abdou Diallo was also present, which was a surprising development, with him having even taken part in a small-sided opposition game this morning. He was expected to be out for the rest of month, and it remains to be seen whether Tuchel includes him in his 18-man squad vs Dortmund, as PSG already have Thilo Kehrer and Tanguy Kouassi fully fit at centre-back.

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Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Juan Bernat, Marquinhos and Thiago Silva all participated totally normally in today’s session. Tuchel gave no indication during training as to which starting XI he will deploy on Tuesday night.

PSG will fly to Dortmund tomorrow morning before a final session in the evening on the Signal Iduna Park pitch.

Andy Delort trashes Leandro Paredes: “He is Neymar’s bodyguard.”

Speaking on RMC last night, Montpellier striker Andy Delort continued his beef with PSG midfielder Leandro Paredes.

“The worst is Paredes. He is incredible. Impressively so. And yet, he is no Neymar or Mbappé… That is what I said the last time, when we played at home against them. We basically dominated the entire match. At one moment, they came to within one metre of Neymar, during the match, and they were repeating passes to try to banter us off. So I talk a bit, I get a bit heated with Neymar and he (Paredes) comes, as if he was his bodyguard. He speaks, he insults, he insulted everyone when he came on. I don’t understand this guy… that is why I asked who the hell he was. He is a great player, but he is no Neymar or Mbappé.”

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Coronavirus has yet to force Juventus vs Lyon behind closed doors – press release

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.”

Bruno Guimarães on Casemiro: “I am not his rival, but I am competition.”

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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A weekend without football – Angers defender Romain Thomas documents his COVID-19 induced free time: “I mowed the lawn.”

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.”