The Best Players In L1 Outside The "Big 3"

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Hey everybody,

We are seeing a wide-open title race this season in L1, so I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to profile some of the best players in the league outside of the big 3: Lyon, Marseille and PSG. I mean everybody knows Juninho, Nasri and Landreau. Though how about Marko Basa, one of the best defenders in the league, or Miralem Pjanic, who appears a star in the making? So in the interest of the league, and I hope the forum, I'm going to start doing profiles of some of the guys at the more obscure clubs, though I want your help. That is, if you are a supporter of a club that's somewhat off the radar, feel free to contribute, nominate, or even do your own profile on a player.

I hope this is a good idea that will appeal to many, though I apologize in advance if this thread gets 0 attention or if everyone here is an OL fan. If this is actually is a success, props to Catel's "French League" thread, which gave me this idea.

[Inara]

I'll throw out some names:

Ederson from Nice. We all know about his teammate Lloris who is a great goalkeeper and with bright future ahead of him. Ederson is a Brazilian talent who also has a level head on his shoulder. Despite interest from Juventus and Lyon and a definite offer from Lazio, he chose to stay at Nice to maximize playing time and to keep learning. He might not be the next Kaka or Ronaldinho (though some have called him that), but I think he's the best successor to Juninho, with similar styles and the same ability to carry his team.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Anyway, thought I'd start off at the bottom of the table because those guys could use some positive stuff.

http://www.fcmetz.com/image/joueurs/pjanic.jpg

Name: Miralem PJANIC
Age: 17 (DOB: April 2, 1990)
Position: Attacking Midfielder
Club: FC Metz
Nationality: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, France
Height: 1m80
Weight: 68kg

Profile: As a guy who could possess almost as many nationalities as professional games, Metz' Miralem Pjanic could arguably already go down as the best player to come out of Luxembourg, but he has indicated that he'd like to instead represent his native Bosnia. It's been said even the folks at the FFF have asked about his availability, and with some reason. At 17, he has already garnered much attention due to his performances with the Luxembourg U-17 team in which he was the only threat. Against Bojan Krkic's Spain, despite his team going on to lose the game 7-1 (hey, it's Luxembourg), the Metz attacking midfielder scored a fantastic goal, a dipping, long range lob. In another game outside the tournament against Belgium, he tallied a total of 4 goals in a 5-5 draw.

Pjanic has terrific technique and has outstanding vision. His weaknesses now are those that often come with almost any player at this stage. Occasionally his ideas are too unrealistic, lacking execution and he isn't physically ready to take on a long L1 schedule (in other words, don't expect to see him in every Metz game). However, it speaks well to his credit that he already has 4 L1 matches now on his belt, and according to match ratings, he's been one of Metz' best players during that stretch, bringing excitement to the game, though he hasn't scored yet.

Without a doubt, Pjanic appears on his way to one of the stars in L1, but we'll have to see under which nationality.

Personally, I think he can be as good as a player as Wiltord, though it's hard to compare because they play different positions.

Shot at eventually making Bosnia NT: 100%
Shot at eventually making Luxembourg NT: 100%
Shot at eventually making French NT: 35%
Shot at eventually making French U-21s: 100%
(Above reflects my personal opinion.)

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

I'll throw out some names:

Ederson from Nice. We all know about his teammate Lloris who is a great goalkeeper and with bright future ahead of him. Ederson is a Brazilian talent who also has a level head on his shoulder. Despite interest from Juventus and Lyon and a definite offer from Lazio, he chose to stay at Nice to maximize playing time and to keep learning. He might not be the next Kaka or Ronaldinho (though some have called him that), but I think he's the best successor to Juninho, with similar styles and the same ability to carry his team.

Thx for the profile, Inara. Call it an anti-Nice bias, but I don't think that Éderson will reach Juninho level, Grafite level is more like it. Though he definitely would be Nice's best outfield player.

[Catel]

Nancy:
Kim

Le Mans:
Pelé
Basa
Matsui
Romaric

Bordeaux:
Planus
Ramé
Fernando
Alonso
Micoud
Cavenaghi

Rennes:
Mensah
Leroy
Wiltord
Pagis
Briand

Valenciennes:
Savidan

Strasbourg:
Gameiro
Renteria

St-Etienne:
Janot
Matuidi
Feindouno
Ilan

Toulouse:
Emanander :D

Lille:
Makoun
Kluivert (?)

Monaco:
Gakpé
Menez
Köller

Lorient:
Vahirua

Lens:
Kovacevic
Carrière
Dindane

Auxerre:
Kahlenberg
Jelen

Caen:
Gouffran

Sochaux:
Grax

Metz:
Aguirre, the only player who's able to touch a ball correctly, but considering the rest of the team I don't know if he could have a place on this thread...

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Merci beaucoup pour your very thorough list, Catel, I'd have added Alou Diarra to the Bordeaux bunch since I believe he's having a good season (according to the match ratings that I track).

Thought I'd give a quick update on Pjanic, mentioned earlier in the thread.

He's chosen Bosnia over Luxembourg, which actually means everyone could be able to see him soon in action. The Bosnia Espoirs team takes on France Espoirs this Friday. From Catel's list, Ménez, Gakpé, Matuidi and Gouffran are expected to make appearances. From Inara's, Hugo Lloris is expected to start in net.

Anyway, again, to everyone, feel free to do your own profile, or contribute/nominate other players.

[frasermc]

great thread.

i thought i'd add a player who hasn't yet played in the league but apparently has a big future ahead of him. i only hope he isn't whisked away to the prem at an early age as there are EPL scouts taking a keen interest in his development.

Name - Henri Saivet

Club - Bordeaux

Position - Striker (no.25)

Age - 26/10/1990

he was one of the stars of the u-17 world cup in s korea. rapid, sharp and explosive is how he's best described.

he's signed a contract until 2010 with bordeaux and is currently the youngest player on their books.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Definitely, check out the "Two Brilliant Superkids in France" thread for even more on Saivet, as well as the Belgian Eden Hazard.

I'm quite pleasantly surprised that you know about Saivet actually, frasermc. I actually looked long and hard to locate a Scottish player in L1, though to no avail. I would love to do a profile on such a Scot if he existed, though I mean, you do have two good wins as a team to be boastful about. ;)

[frasermc]

I actually looked long and hard to locate a Scottish player in L1, though to no avail.

the last scottish player i can remember who had a successful career of sorts in france was mo johnston when playing for nantes.


i'm not quite sure how big a hit he was or how 'successful' for that matter but it's the best i can come up with and that was quite some time ago...

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Sorry, wow, according to wiki I was an infant when Mo Johnston played in L1.

Anyway, I'm outta here, I have a class and then lunch with my gf to run off to, though happy this thread has got going. Cheers mate.

[frasermc]

Name - Guirane N'Daw

Club - Sochaux

Position - Defensive Midfielder or Centre Back

Age - 24/04/1984

Country - Senegal (17 caps 2 goals)


in the summer my club, celtic, made an offer believed to have been between £3-4mill for him. sochaux's chairman, jean-luc plessis replied with an emphatic NO and we moved on to eventually sign massimo donati instead. i think i'm right in saying when alain perrin moved to lyon he wanted n'daw as well and received a similair response.

plessis said, "in life you have to know what you want, and i want n'daw to stay. my duty is to make our team as competitive as possible, and that means holding on to n'daw."

[Catel]

Monaco has many great young players !
Muratori, Schwechlen, Zola, Mangani, Nimani...

Alexandre Bonnet (Toulouse) will become very strong too. :)

And a fantastic young dribbler I forgot at Bordeaux: Gabriel Obertan ! :eek:

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

I was going to say hey, Catel, you are more than welcome to support ASM if you like all those players. Then again, I know that you're really not a supporter of any club, and I kinda admire that neutrality/objectivity. In any case, I am actually disappointed the way some of those skilled developing players are being brought up as some of them have declined in stature, I would say. Again, what is to be written below reflects only my opinion.

Muratori has improved a lot actually I think and now is on Espoirs, yet doubts do linger in the back of my mind as he's arguably too frail and not that fast (although he's not slow, obviously) as a left back. As for Léo Schwechlen, many of the supporters think he'll be the best defender we've produced since Thuram! That is, he'll be better than Squillaci and Givet. Distel Zola is doing quite well too, I would prefer to see him and Malaury Martin in our midfield instead of Leko, Bernardi, and Diego Pérez, in Bernardi's case it's that he's in decline, not able anymore to win the physical duels, though I have admiration for the service he's given to Monaco.

Those 3 I think have improved, whereas Mangani and big Fred Nimani have declined a bit. Mangani's been loaned out and hasn't particularly impressed much in the lower divisions, though I do like him a little more than Muratori even now. Nimani's been loaned out to the Merlus which hasn't been bad for him I suppose, he's gotten more action than he would here at Monaco, though the concern with him is that as physically skilled as he is, he's got a lot of work to do ahead.

Oh, and to frasermc, I think that you (as well as Lyon) should be happy that you didn't sign N'Daw as he's been quite poor this season. The guy is huge, though (1m90), but I think he's let that transfer talk get to his head, as again, he's been disappointing on the pitch.

[vonni]

taye taiwo, imo the next big thing

[Inara]

taye taiwo, imo the next big thing

He's been the next big thing for the past two years. He'd go far if he could control his temper and develop some consistency.

Achille Emana and Jeremy Mathieu of Toulouse deserve a shout out. Oh, and that Kevin Mirallas at Lille is quite a prospect. :)

[sl7vk]

SEBASTIEN PUYGRENIER Nancy 25 Defense
PASCAL BERENGUER Nancy 26 Midfield

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

Puygrenier's been a beast in the past couple of seasons. Of course, then there's also Dia and Kim, who completely tore us apart the other day. I don't know too much about Bérenguer I'll admit, except he, Essien and Chimbonda were once together on Bastia. Sad that it appears for the "small market" teams that once those stars go and adequate replacements aren't provided, they head down to L2 or even lower, look at what happened to Guingamp after they lost Malouda/Drogba.

[SportBoy333]

No one has mentioned Bafe Gomis of St. Etienne. I thought this year would be his breakout season.

[SuperSebGrimaldi]

I've always thought of Gomis as overrated. I think when someone sees a 1m85+ striker with speed, they immediately draw comparisons to Drogba (they did it to Dagano too) though the huge difference is that Drogba works hard for the team. I haven't seen Gomis do that in the games I've seen him play. If he works on that, then, who knows, though right now according to match ratings, it appears that Feinduono is carrying that team offensively.

As a side note, though I think OL fans may not want to admit it, Saint-Etienne have a quite a decent team.

[SportBoy333]

They havent spent any real money yet. They are a decent team but they still have a smaller budget. If they actually ever start spending they could become a title contender. They arent Auxerre, Nancy, Metz, Sochaux, Nice, etc. Those teams dont have a high ceiling in terms of what they can spend because they have small fanbases but their budgets are somewhat comparable to ASSE's budget.