Thursday 04 October 2012, 10:00
There is no doubt the teams to have shone brightest in Ligue 1 so far this season have been Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain. The former may not have started the campaign with the media’s attention fixed...
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Monday 06 August 2012, 11:23
It's less than a decade since Monaco were Champions League finalists – but they're about to start their second successive season in France's second tier. Stuart Coleman reports on the fallen...
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Wednesday 21 December 2011, 12:31
Stuart Coleman , Editor of The Football Diaries , on the benefits of Paris St-Germain's rejuvenation As Nicolas Sarkozy took his place in the Élysée Palace in June 2007, le président's team of...
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Thursday 11 August 2011, 11:31
They say that with humility comes wisdom. After three years without a trophy, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas decided it was time to go back to basics. "These past few years," he admitted, "we...
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Monday 01 August 2011, 12:44
Graphic designers have taken to neatly incorporating a red oil drill into the design of Paris Saint-Germain’s logo. The decision of Qatar Sports Investments [QSI] to extend its already impressive portfolio...
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Monday 20 June 2011, 11:31
Leonardo always maintained that he didn't see his future as a coach, but how about president of a major club? That could well be the urbane Brazilian’s destiny, but for now he'll have to make do...
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Friday 13 May 2011, 13:35
Few were prepared to give Caen a chance. The optimism that followed an opening day victory over champions Marseille and then another at home to Lyon a week later had long since vanished. A 12-game run...
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Wednesday 04 May 2011, 12:27
On walking through the streets of Paris this spring, it was hard not to be confronted by Nike’s landmark agreement to sponsor the French national team. The glossy posters showing Florent Malouda, Yann...
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Wednesday 27 April 2011, 13:00
Taye Taiwo has always had a reputation as a Cannonball Kid. Once during his school days back in Lagos, the powerfully built youngster hit a shot so hard it knocked one of his friends out cold. The emergency...
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Wednesday 20 April 2011, 13:07
Imagine playing each game as if it might well be your last. This is the life Nice goalkeeper Lionel Letizi has chosen for himself. The 37-year-old, who made his professional debut back in 1992, finally...
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Monday 11 April 2011, 13:07
With the passing of spring and the end of the season approaching, tempers are beginning to flare in Ligue 1, even among the most reserved of players. After watching Lyon surrender a two-goal lead in injury...
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Thursday 10 March 2011, 16:05
Mevlüt Erding is dying for a piece of chocolate. But the striker’s secret is out thanks, in no small part to his former Sochaux teammate and best friend, a cheeky little scamp with two first names called...
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Thursday 10 February 2011, 10:30
Laurent Blanc won’t have struggled to find the words to describe what he felt before Wednesday’s friendly between France and Brazil in Paris. This was as classic an example of déjà-vu if ever there was...
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Thursday 03 February 2011, 12:35
The walk back to the dressing room at the Stade Chaban-Delmas is said to be the longest in Europe, stretching for nearly 120m under the historic listed stands. Amidst the din of the supporters above and...
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Friday 28 January 2011, 12:17
Sat in the corner of a bar, watching the game, Ludovic Giuly stood up and started to undo his shirt one button at a time. It wasn’t long before the above mentioned item of clothing was being swung over...
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Friday 21 January 2011, 08:30
The phone rang for the Nth time. Once again caller ID revealed it to be Marseille’s press officer. André-Pierre Gignac had purposely avoided picking up for weeks. But this time he couldn’t leave it hanging...
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Friday 14 January 2011, 10:00
Guy Lacombe walked out of the dressing room, his moustache twitching with rage. The beleaguered Monaco coach had a bone to pick. Someone evidently was about to be on the end of a tongue-lashing. He spied...
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Tags: Monaco, Toulouse, Saint-Étienne, Arles, Valenciennes, Lille, Jean-Luc Vannuchi, Paris FC, Chambery, Montpellier, Frédéric Antonetti, French Cup, Guy Lacombe
Tuesday 30 November 2010, 11:06
Yoann Gourcuff has carried a weight of expectation on his shoulders ever since he was a local ping-pong champion aged 12 in Morbihan. But the scale of the pressure that the France international is currently...
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Tuesday 23 November 2010, 10:42
Serendipity is considered one of the top 10 hardest English words to translate, but it’s one that’s all too familiar to football scouts around the world. The annals of football history are littered with...
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Thursday 18 November 2010, 10:42
L’Équipe billed it as the 100 years squabble, a century of fierce sporting rivalry seasoned inevitably with the history that links England and France so intrinsically as noisy neighbours. “Never forget...
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Tags: Laurent Blanc, Karim Benzema, Raymond Domenech, Nicolas Anelka, Didier Deschamps, France, Newcastle United, Michel Platini, Yoann Gourcuff, Samir Nasri, Zinedine Zidane, England, Southampton, David Ginola, Eric Abidal, Carlton Palmer, Frank Leboeuf, Eric Cantona, Fabio Capello, Bixente Lizarazu, Alain Giresse, Emmanuel Petit, Roger Lemerre
Wednesday 17 November 2010, 11:37
Before all greetings cards became a 1950s setting of domestic bliss juxtaposed with a lewd speech bubble, the greetings written inside were sweet and innocent, wishing you all the best with unbridled optimism...
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Tags: Bordeaux, Guillaume Hoarau, Nicolas Anelka, Marseille, Auxerre, Claude Makelele, Edouard Cisse, Yoann Gourcuff, Valenciennes, Gregory Coupet, Clement Chantome, Robin Leproux, Lucho Gonzalez, Stephane Sessegnon, Mamadou Sakho, Apoula Edel, Sylvain Armand, Sebastien Bazin, Nene, Jean Fernandez, Mathieu Bodmer, Mevlut Erdinc, Ludovic Giuly, Jerome Rothen, Gabriel Heinze, Antoine Kombouare, Siaka Tiene, Paris Saint-Germain
Monday 01 November 2010, 11:19
Oscar Ewolo is a trained pastor. But most of his sermons come in the dressing room. The 32-year-old’s congregation is Brest, which incidentally is the team he captains, his church the Stade Francis-Le...
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Tuesday 26 October 2010, 13:13
France's most successful team of the modern era may be one defeat from sacking their manager. James Horncastle reveals the extraordinary tale of derby defeat, decline and press wars around the team...
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Tags: Arsene Wenger, Monaco, Claude Puel, Jimmy Briand, Saint-Étienne, Lyon, Leonardo, Jean-Michel Aulas, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Juninho, Arles, L’Equipe, Cris
Friday 15 October 2010, 09:30
Frédéric Antonetti should really be watching the game. After all, the silver-tongued Corsican tactician is on the brink of a momentous achievement. Rennes are playing early pace setters Toulouse in Ligue...
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Monday 11 October 2010, 11:05
October 11, 1995 is a date that resonates in French football’s collective consciousness. After all, it promised to be a particularly dark and unforgiving night for the beleaguered national team. Both hammer...
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Tags: Laurent Blanc, Youri Djorkaeff, Karim Benzema, Didier Deschamps, France, Alou Diarra, Loic Remy, Yoann Gourcuff, Lassana Diarra, Aime Jacquet, Abou Diaby, Chrisrian Karembeu, Florent Malouda, Vikash Dhorasoo, Samir Nasri, Zinedine Zidane, Romania, Philippe Mexes
Friday 01 October 2010, 11:17
As a bus snakes its way out of Lyon in the dead of night, four Saint-Étienne players gather around a table to watch a YouTube clip on a MacBook Pro, the screen’s brightness lighting up the smiles on their...
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Monday 20 September 2010, 10:23
Michel Estevan looks on helplessly from the stands, his arms folded, protecting him from the unforgiving wind blowing around the Parc des Sports. Below him are Arles-Avignon, the team he had built from...
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Tuesday 14 September 2010, 08:30
It started with a whisper that became a shout. Like an errant snowball, the singing gained momentum and rolled down from the Gerland’s virage nord, collecting bodies as it went before spilling out on the...
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Monday 23 August 2010, 09:50
Oddly enough for a man with a name as innately attractive as Alain Casanova, the Toulouse manager is having a hard time making people fall in love with his purple-shirted team even though they currently...
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Monday 16 August 2010, 11:05
When Patrice Evra pointed out to Lilian Thuram that “walking around in glasses and a hat does not turn you into Malcolm X”, he could equally have been referring to Hatem Ben Arfa, albeit in a completely...
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Monday 09 August 2010, 10:54
Diehard Newcastle United fans may remember seeing the gaunt figure of Franck Dumas briefly gracing St. James’ Park a decade ago. The Norman libero lived on Tyneside for just four months before returning...
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Thursday 05 August 2010, 12:03
FFT.com's resident French football expert James Horncastle continues his preview of the upcoming Ligue 1 season... Who will be the dark horse in the title race? Arguably last year’s most entertaining...
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Wednesday 04 August 2010, 10:39
After the fiasco in South Africa brought a great deal of shame on a nation that had - at least until Raymond Domenech - been so very proud of its national team, France is now ready to shed any notion of...
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Monday 02 August 2010, 11:19
“Here, perhaps, is the future of the Bleus”. That was the tentative headline with which Le Monde greeted the French Under-19 side’s progress to the European Championship final. Still stunned by a World...
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Tuesday 01 June 2010, 15:00
Four years ago Vikash Dhorasoo went to Germany as a member of France’s World Cup squad armed with a pair of football boots and a Super-8 camera given to him by his friend, the film-maker Fred Poulet. He...
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Saturday 29 May 2010, 10:38
Watching France train in the alpine resort of Tignes over the last week was a little like discovering a sequel to `90s classic Cool Runnings. At times it was farcical, partly because seeing a group of...
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Friday 28 May 2010, 11:04
Curiously, football managers are often defined more by the quirks they display on the touchline than the titles they win on the pitch. Jean Tigana is one such example whose penchant for lollipops and toothpicks...
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Monday 17 May 2010, 12:36
If Bordeaux let out a whimper on Sunday morning in recognition that the sun had already set on what had only recently seemed like a bright new dawn, the rest of France breathed a collective sigh of relief...
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Wednesday 12 May 2010, 10:48
This blog doesn’t recall a contestant on Dale Winton’s daytime TV classic Supermarket Sweep ever putting a 23-man World Cup squad in their trolley. But that’s allegedly what happened in France yesterday...
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Monday 10 May 2010, 11:09
For the people of Marseille, Wednesday night was arguably the longest in 18 years. It started at exactly 7:50pm just over 330km to the north where Champions League chasing Lyon were playing host to second...
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Tuesday 04 May 2010, 09:24
RESULTS Fri Apr 30 Auxerre 0-0 Marseille Sun May 2 Lille 3-1 Nancy, Bordeaux 1-0 Toulouse, Valenciennes 0-0 Lorient, Rennes 1-2 Sochaux, Saint-Étienne 1-4 Lens, Boulogne 3-3 Nice, Montpellier 0-1 Lyon...
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Tuesday 27 April 2010, 17:11
Dancing on the edge of a volcano. That was L’Équipe ’s assessment of French football last week. While liquid hot magma and the odd cloud of ash spewed out of Iceland, other far graver things were creeping...
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Monday 26 April 2010, 11:29
RESULTS Sat Apr 24 Nancy 0-0 Montpellier, Le Mans 1-2 Lille, Lorient 1-0 Bordeaux, Sochaux 0-3 Boulogne, Nice 2-1 Grenoble, PSG 1-1 Rennes Sun Apr 25 Toulouse 0-3 Auxerre, Lens 1-1 Valenciennes, Marseille...
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Monday 19 April 2010, 10:49
RESULTS Sat Apr 17 Boulogne 1-2 Marseille, Auxerre 4-1 Lorient, Rennes 0-0 Nancy, Valenciennes 0-1 Le Mans, Nice 0-0 Lens, Grenoble 2-2 Sochaux, Bordeaux 2-2 Lyon Sun Apr 18 Montpellier 1-1 Toulouse, Lille...
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Monday 12 April 2010, 11:24
RESULTS Sat Apr 10 Le Mans 2-2 Montpellier, Lorient 1-1 Rennes, Monaco 2-1 Valenciennes, Toulouse 4-0 Grenoble, Sochaux 0-2 Saint-Étienne, Lens 3-0 Boulogne, PSG 3-1 Bordeaux Sun Apr 11 Lyon 1-1 Lille...
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Tuesday 06 April 2010, 11:52
RESULTS Sat Apr 3 Bordeaux 1-2 Nancy, Valenciennes 1-0 Lille, Rennes 1-2 Lyon, Grenoble 1-2 Lorient, Nice 0-0 Sochaux, Saint-Etienne 2-0 Le Mans, Montpellier 0-0 Monaco Sun Apr 4 Marseille 1-0 Lens, Boulogne...
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Wednesday 31 March 2010, 12:52
Bordeaux and Lyon greeted being drawn together in the Champions League quarter-finals with the kind of phoney bonhomie that was reminiscent of the line from The Godfather Part II when Michael Corleone...
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Monday 29 March 2010, 11:21
RESULTS Sat Mar 27 Lyon 2-0 Grenoble Sun Mar 28 Le Mans 1-3 Rennes, Lorient 4-0 Saint-Étienne, Toulouse 0-2 Nice, PSG 3-0 Boulogne, Nancy 5-1 Lens, Lille 4-1 Montpellier As if wearing a skanky T-shirt...
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Wednesday 24 March 2010, 16:34
Imagine a land where cup competitions don’t need TV company hyperbole or a dusty rummage through the archives to find some romance. A place where a fairytale cup run isn’t based on spending millions of...
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Monday 22 March 2010, 10:16
Sitting in a humble little establishment along the waterfront in Marseille on Saturday after a wedding, The French Connection was looking for inspiration – and, after one too many glasses of vin rouge...
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Monday 15 March 2010, 11:24
RESULTS Sat Mar 13 Monaco 0-0 Bordeaux, Montpellier 1-1 Auxerre, Lorient 1-0 Lens, Nancy 1-3 Boulogne, PSG 4-1 Sochaux, Le Mans 0-1 Nice, Lyon 1-1 Saint- Étienne Sun Mar 14 Lille 1-0 Grenoble, Valenciennes...
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Wednesday 10 March 2010, 11:11
BLOGSWAP! Ahead of the Real Madrid vs Lyon game, FFT.com's La Liga Loca stalwart Tim Stannard explains why tonight's game could spell the end of a very expensive dream The director of Marca is...
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Monday 08 March 2010, 12:30
RESULTS Sat Mar 6 Auxerre 1-0 Valenciennes, Boulogne 0-0 Olympique Lyon , Lens 1-1 PSG, Nice 2-3 Nancy, Saint-Étienne 1-1 Lille, Sochaux 1-0 Toulouse, Stade Rennes 1-0 Monaco Sun Mar 7 Bordeaux 1-1 Montpellier...
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Thursday 04 March 2010, 16:30
Welcome to yet another new regular FourFourTwo.com feature. Let James Horncastle take you to Paris, where fans fight amongst each other... It’s fair to say Gabriel Heinze is no stranger to controversy...
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