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Tall order French clubs look to live up to national team's standards
A new French season is kicking off, and once again it begins with French football on the crest of a wave. France's sensational European Championship victory in early July endorsed their 1998 World Cup triumph and firmly established French international soccer as the best there is at the current time.
But what of the French domestic game?
Can France's club sides live up to the standards set by its illustrious national team? Well, just as after the '98 World Cup, you'd have to say that's a pretty tall order, especially given the lack of raw material on offer in the French league.
Let me clarify, of the 22 players who made the trip to Belgium and Holland for the Euro 2000 only seven earned their living at French league clubs, and, of those, four came from a single club, Bordeaux.
In fact, of the 14 players who actually took the field in the final against Italy, only five played their football in their homeland, with the rest plying their trade in the more lucrative leagues of Italy, England, Spain and Germany.
And France's lack of home-based talent is also reflected in the success, or lack of it, that their clubs have had in European competition.
In the past, a French club has only won the European Cup once, and that with a triumph that was subsequently nullified when Marseille was stripped of the 1993 title due to an infamous corruption scandal.
No French team has ever won the UEFA Cup. And Paris St. Germain is the sole French winner of the old Cup-Winners Cup, a trophy they won in 1996.
So you see nothing about the French pedigree suggests that the quality of their domestic league will rival that of the big three, Spain, Italy and England, in any way, regardless of their feats on the international stage.
That said, for a league without the massive cash investment enjoyed by some of its foreign counterparts, Le Championnat will at least offer pretty good value for money, and some decent competition.
Among the likely contenders, Paris St. Germain will certainly be expected to contest the honors. Especially as they've been boosted by the return of the prodigal son, Nicolas Anelka, who's finally got his $30.5 million wish to return home granted.
The mercurial 21-year-old has arrived back at the club where he began his professional career via one-year detour to Real Madrid of Spain, after a successful spell in England with Arsenal. After bleating so long about how foreign clubs just didn't understand him, he now has no more excuses left and must deliver the goods or forever be remembered as a player who's ego surpassed his talent.
Defending champions Monaco, meanwhile, may have lost Euro 2000 golden goal hero David Trezeguet to Juventus of Italy, but with former Rennes striker Shabani Nonda recruited to the ranks to add height and power up front, and plenty in the bank to spend, they have the firepower and the cash to become the first French league side to retain the title in eight years.
Of course they'll have to get by Bordeaux first -- a team that boasts three members of France's championship winning squad, Ulrich Rame, Christophe Dugarry and Sylvain Wiltord -- the man whose last minute equalizer in the Euro 2000 final kept the French alive. Bordeaux last took the title in 1999, and, on paper, should be there or thereabouts again.
Among the other hopefuls, will Marseille have a renaissance after last season's flirtation with relegation? Will Auxerre return to the dizzy heights of 1996 when they came from nowhere to win their one and only French title? Or can Lyon make the step up from third last season to be champions at the end of this campaign? It all makes for a fascinating season, and potentially the most open championship in Europe.
Terry Baddoo is co-host of World Sport, the international sports show that airs live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN International. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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