Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Zidane back for France!!!

Zidane back with Les Bleus - training under the eyes for other 98ers
Zidane is back for Les Bleus!!! Okay okay it was just a visit from the French legend to Clairefontaine to train with the squad as they prepare for the start of Euro qualifiers. His presence was a morale boost to the players and a chance for many of them to be on the pitch with one of the all time greatest footballers. What is encouraging to me is the fact that Blanc is not afraid to have someone of Zizou's stature come to his training. Granted, they were team mates and won trophies together. But other managers might not be comfortable enough to allow this to happen 48 hours before they start qualifiers. I highly doubt Domenech would have ever even considered let alone permitted this to occur.

From the sounds of it, the presence of another World Cup champion did nothing but give the team an added morale boost and motivation as they prepare for Belarus. Good for them, good for Blanc and happy to see Zizou wearing the blue strip again...even if it is only the practice kit.

On another note, Cabaye had to declare forfeit and was replaced by Saint-Etienne midfielder Matuidi. After the forfeit of LDiarra, Blanc has shown his pecking order for the holding midfielder slot, does this push Toulalan as I had written in an earlier post, even further into international Siberia?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what a great picture. zidane, blanc, and barthez playing around together during training. Who'd have guessed it was taken in 2010 and not 2000