With FSW now showing the top French league I started watching it. I liked how you can see the future stars play before they get those big money transfers. Anyway I wanted to find a club to support. I am looking for a decent sized club no one that is going to jump back from the 1st to the 2nd division. Also a club with some history and good support. Thanks a lot.
the way football is headed recently hopefully we will see less of those big money transfers. As for which club to support I think Girodins de Bordeaux, FC Nantes and RC Lens fit what your looking for.
Yep, the French league may not have a lot of international soccer superstars but I definitely think it's the right league to see many of the biggest names of tomorrow As to help you make a choice for a club to support, here's my two cents: I think you can reduce your list to 8 clubs. ----- The big buys (or who are supposed to be) : * Lyon: The most powerful right now, but with a short history. Champions for the last two seasons. 3 cups, 1 League cup. Currently home of Giovane Elber. * Monaco: Really hot right now. Morientes is on loan from Real there (but you probably knew that already). 1 UEFA Cup final, 7 championships, 5 cups, 1 league cup. Produced players like Henry, Trezeguet, Petit & Thuram. * Marseille: Half of France loves this club, the other half hates it. The French club with the biggest history with Saint-Etienne. 1 Champions League, 1 CL final, 1 UEFA final, 8 championships, 10 cups. A lot of players to watch: Van Buyten, Drogba, Mido, Sytchev... * Paris SG: Used to be big in the 90's. Tries to make it back to the top with a new coach this year. Former home of Ronaldinho. Current home of Pauleta. Anelka came out of the youth program. Probably a future big: Argentine defender Heinze. Barcelona & Juventus wanted to sign him last summer. 1 Cup Winner's Cup, 1 CW Cup final, 2 championships, 5 cups, 2 league cups. * Bordeaux: Same as PSG. Used to be big & tries to come back. Zidane & Lizarazu played there before becoming huge. 5 championships, 3 cups, 1 leauge cup. ----- The talents farms : * Nantes: Can be huge depending of the generation of player it has. Produced players like Deschamps and Desailly. 8 championships, 3 cups. * Auxerre: Same as Nantes. Has right now very good youngsters although the club got a surprinsingly bad start this season. Those who have a great chance to be really big names : Boumsong, Mexes & Cisse. 1 championship, 3 cups. ----- The last one : * Lens: maybe not as powerfull or well-known as the other but a very popular club. Its fans are regularly cited as the best French public. Diouf played ther before moving to Liverpool. 1 championship, 2 League cups. ----- Now, the choice is yours! Cheers!
psg psg ra ra ra Be part of le best supporters group for any club of le world, le PSG. We are of course le best supporters because I am part of them.
Right now I have tossed out Lyon and Monaco. Also I think following Marseille now would bejumping on the bandwagon, the same reason I trhew out Lyon. So it is mainly down to PSG, Nantes and Auxerre. Maybe not Auxerre though b/c it seems like all there talent is going to leave in the summer.
No way marseille's fans are the best... Once again l'OM is the one... Even if it's not currently the best team in France (I reckon Monaco and Lyon are better) but the fighting spirit of the team and the atmosphere at the Velodrome is incomparable
Yes, they're right, it has to be OM. If you go to Marseille and the area around, you can see how passionate people are about football. Its a massive club, the only French club to have won the European Cup, and the atmosphere at the Velodrome is top drawer. OM went through a bad patch 2 or 3 years back, nearly getting relegated, but theyre back where they belong now - in Champs League and challenging for le Championnat. What a great result last night as well. Hat trick for Drogba, go on son!
If you've been anywhere near Marseille on a match day, then you know what it's all about... AUX ARMES!!!
Just had a few more questions. I am sort of leaning towards Bordeaux b/c of Zidane, who is one of my favorite players. Also they were once a succesful club, but are struggling lately. I will probably stay away from the whole PSG-Marseille rivalry. So who are Bordeaux's best players? How do the prospects for this season look? How is the stadium and atmosphere? Who are their biggest rivals/Local derby? Thanks
Actually Zidane is from Marseille and therefore he supports Marseille... Fair enough but you gonna miss something... Best Players: Celades(Ex Madrid), Darcheville (Striker) There 14th in the league at the moment but they usually have a bad run at the start of the season and then it gets better (although this year they lost some key players (savio,pauleta...) so wait&see The stadium (Parc Lescure Chamban-Delmas) is not really big (around 35000 seats) the atmosphere is alright especially for the big games Biggest Rivals are Marseille, Nantes and Toulouse I guess
I am aware that Zidane is from Marseille and that is the club he supported, but he played for Cannes and then Bordeaux before moving to Juve. Also reading about all the good stuff about Marseille I wanted some more info on them. I have seen them play on FSW twice and they play a nice attacking style. Also it seems like they have the best atmosphere. Are there any Marseille sites in English? Thanks
I remember when that site had the awesome Flash Intro with Puff Daddy when he redid Cashmir. Support Bordeaux. I use to have a Yahoo! Group, but no one came to it. Made me sad.
So what kind of cities does each club play in? I have heard Monaco is VERY rich! And Paris...obviously is Paris, but what about: Marseille Bordeaux Lyon Auxerre
Firts of all if you're gonna support a French Club and it's not PSG then please don't support Merdeseille. Support Bordeux, Lyon,Monaco or St. Etienne. They have great history and have always played attractive football. These are clubs I enjoy watching and will on occasion cheer for as long as they're not playing PSG. OM may be the club Zizou supported as a boy but they wouldn't give him a look in the day and we know the rest. Best thing about OM is that it's far away from Paris and not far enough. I won't even get started on them, dislike isn't a strong enough word to describe how I feel about them. Remember, OM is the only club to have a Champion's League Title taken away from them for cheating. Support, whatever club you enjoy watching, that's what I say. Allez PSG!!!! 100% PSG
I think I might start supporting Bordeaux. Zidane is my favorite player and he was the reason I first started watching football after I saw himplay in the CL in his first season in Madrid.
I don't know, please tell me about OM! I have thought about supporting them. But would love to hear your reasons for NOT supporting them. I just got into football in 2002, so I don't know alot of history. Please explain. I thought OM was liberal and PSG were a bunch of right wing nuts in Paris. I don't know, please inform me. I would love to visit Paris and I love Marseille's kits/crest/massive stadium, but I'm willing to hear another point about other clubs. I'm still very new to French footie and am happy that I can name 7 clubs!
Welcome to Big Soccer That's great, BUT why are they worthless??? Why should I cheer for AS Monaco???
St. Etienne is by far my favourite French club, because of their amazing supporters (but they're down somewhere in Ligue 2.. still have the best support in France besides PSG and OM though)
catfish: i'm just flaming them, so don't ask me why i hate them i just don't like the way they're running their team the way they're playing is boring, and marseille's management is incoherent to me "Why should I cheer for AS Monaco???" well, entertaining type of game, great talents, good coaching they don't need to attract the medias like marseille's nonsense recruiting of barthez, or psg trying to get stars as well monaco relies more on young players they have formed, which is the best way for a club to last in the future with the same type of game they make plans for the future, while psg and om (especially psg) seem to only care about the present moment, money and medias
Sounds like you have no idea how either team, i.e. PSG and OM are being run at the moment. I can't speak for the OM but I can on PSG. One of the first things Vahid Halihodzic stated and has done when he arrived at PSG was to improve relations with the smaller clubs in and around Paris to develop more players. You're right that we'd like to find a few impact players for the Ligue 1 side, but we're no different than any other club in any top division in any league in the world. We've had a good youth system for quite sometime and have preferred to pull players from it. A few of the players formed by PSG currently playing for the first team include: Selim Benachour -- Forward; Jean Michel Badiane (Defender) and Bart Ogbeche (Forward). Matter of fact Bart Ogbeche will turn 20 next month and has played with PSG since age 16/17. He played for Nigeria in the last World Cup and was one of the youngest players in the tournament. Three players from our Youth system playing for us isn't a bad return by most Super Club standards. FYI, before he was poached from our youth side at 19, the nut case known as Anelka was developed by the PSG youth system. As far as Monaco relying on youth players they have formed, they're not much different than PSG. They do have a good youth system but don't kid yourself in trying to assume that they're not doing business in a manner similar to us. A few years ago they had a player by the name of Simone playing for them. He came from PSG and prior to playing for PSG he played in Serie 1, he was one of their top goal scorers. Nonda, whom was unfortunately injured in a match against us this year, was developed by another club in France prior to joining Monaco and he didn't come cheap. I can name a few other players on Monaco's team that were not developed by them and all cost more than what PSG could pay. So their reliance on younger players argument is rather weak. Heck, Prso plays for them because they got a good deal and expect a good return when he leaves in a few weeks.