november 2013michel

3 // Russian language. Problem for Latvian football?

9 // Asterix from Gdansk

13 // Next star of Borussia Dortmund

17 // Ligue 1. LOSC going strong

21 // TOP 7 Rising Stars of Bundesliga 2013/14

November 2013

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ABOUT US«michel» is an old fashioned monthly magazine about the beautiful game of football. «michel» football magazine was founded in August 2013 by Rolands Juhna and Cristian Liberum.

Rolands JuhnaCristian LiberumAlessio LoginovNastya MendezVladislav Adamishen

Rolands Juhna

DESIGNCristian Liberum

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Twitter - @lemichelmag

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language

russian

problem for latvian football

WRITTEN BY ROLANDS JUHNA

PHOTO BY TOMS GRINBERGS

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Latvian football has always been put in the role of stepchild. Not just between other kind of sports in this country (basketball, ice hockey, volleyball), but now already among people not connected to sport. From success of 2004, when Latvia made a miracle by qualifying to European championship, have stayed just nostalgic memories. Against all expectations, that this achievement will lead Latvian football to the new level and years after proving those are wrong expectations, for the mo-ment it has reached real stadia of downfall. Then it was reality – players were better, we didn’t know the word „crisis” as much as now, average football level in Europe wasn’t that high as it is now, Latvian highest football league (Virsliga) was a competitive tournament to many European leagues ranked in the middle of the table but now it is nothing more than a bog. Yes, quite clear and deep bog according to last actions what has happened in this league. And the main „puller” to this bog is the biggest enemy of all kind of sports nowadays – totalizator.

It got clear, after few interviews and commentaries that in Latvian football there is at least one (perhaps more than one) team, which pays more attention to the behind the scenes „battle” (game result arranging, talks with players and judges for getting the „right” game result for them), than real battle on the football pitch. And the saddest thing of all this is that this team – FC Daugava, is not the outsider of this tournament but goes for TOP places in the league and is defending champion of Virsliga. Playing all kind of „games” at a same time. Can you imagine similar situation in Spain, England or Germany? Where team-champion would take a very active part to game arranging stuff. It is nonsense.

So here we come to the main problem of all Latvian football and at the same time we give an answer to all those who are asking – why Latvian football can’t develop at all? Why we just stuck deeper and deeper and with every year we look bit worse than before? Main answer is totalizator. Stuff, about which not many dare to talk. And only few dare to talk about it in public, not hiding their real names. Those people can be counted on one hand fingers. And despite that it doesn’t mean anything. No real evidences have been gotten neither now nor years before. So actual amount of the teams included in game arranging in Latvian football might increase sharply. And in such case there won’t be anything good in future, if team managers, directors and owners are interested in their own, illegal profit but not team’s and league’s player development. The more these „games” will be played, the less chance for Latvia to get same quality players as in 2004 and do same mira-cle somewhen again.

But as it seems for now, the mass media sources unwillingly want to talk about this problem. Of course, when a brave football player (like last time it was Stanley Ibe, former FC Daugava striker, who got enough of all these behind the scenes actions and decided to leave the team, while revealing about all and everything in interview) finally says truth about this all, then these news must be copied with some additional sentences to their sites. But not more than that. Are all these journalists feel too afraid to talk more about this situation and give some own opinions or they just don’t want to do that. Even if those opinions are totally wrong – who cares? The more mass media sources will talk about totalizator scandals and game ar-ranging inside of the teams, the more possibility that some organs will pay at least smallest their attention to things that are happening. But no, this is not Italy. Italian mass media sources did quite job to help police find some evidences about game arranging. And we all know the result – so long they got all evidences, they didn’t care that they have to relegate such team like... Juventus. Yeah, big deal, what is Juventus. Almost same level team as FC Daugava. Irony of course. But the main idea stays same. Here easier is to talk about language problems. If more exactly – about RUSSIAN language in Latvian football. It is very big problem in the current situation of the Latvian football.

you can often

see an empty

stands in the

latvian league

games people

have only little

interest about

local teams and

that is the main

problem in our

football

PHOTO BY TOMS GRINBERGS

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What actually is language? In simple words to explain – a tool for two or more people or people groups to communicate with each other. That’s why in each country people speak in their countries’s specific, native language. However, through centuries, thanks to wars, occupations and other problems that happened many, many years before we even were born, these people groups were mixed up. One country, being in any military or political conflict or situation against other country, got bigger risk to be inhabited with these people from the other country. Such it goes, for example, with France. Just be-cause France had many African countries as their colonies in previous centuries, now quite percentage of the inhabitants of France come from the lands of Africa. Similar situation is with USA, in Germany there are living 4% of Turks, which is quite big number according to the population of Germany, which is 80 million people. In Lithuania are living over 6% of Poles. It is not something extra-ordinary. Similar situation is with Latvia. Here, as many know, are 2 big groups of inhabitants – native ones, Latvians, and Russians. Percentage of Russian people here are not as small as in Lithuania – it is approx. 27%. But, if we look at neighbour country Estonia, there Russians are in the range between 23 and 25%. And according to the fact that Latvia has bigger population than Estonia, in average you could meet more Russians in Estonia, than in Latvia.

daugavpilsRigalatvia liepaja jelgava

55%

35%

55%55%

30%

45%65%

20%

75%

35%

latvians

russian speaking

The main thing, why in Latvia are so many talks about Rus-sians and their language knowledge and so on hides under the fact that most of Russians inhabit in Riga, the capital of Latvia. And since at this moment Riga is main centre and city of Latvia and almost all things go around it, then Russians appear in other eyes even more. Of course, it is not a situ-ation to be proud of that in your country every 5th person might not know or doesn’t know your native language. And even more I understand the sadness and disappointment of Latvian older generations about how it all happened with Soviet times, when Russians used their power and occupated Latvians but later pretended that nothing really happened. BUT. It is past, cruel past and it has nothing to do with pre-sent and future in terms of justice. I mean, whining has never helped to achieve something, in this case – to make Russians know Latvian language or emigrate from country. And not to make this article going just in political way, now we go back to football and I can say even more – it has no connec-tion at all with it how one Latvian-English based magazine wants to tell us.

I wont retell all the story what was written in that article but the main idea was that Russian language dominates in Latvian football and the sub text comes from it – it is one of the main (or main) reason why Latvian football is where it is. Previous Latvian national football coach Aleksandrs Stark-ovs didn’t know Latvian (although sometimes he spoke Latvian a bit), same situation with current coach Marians Pahars, „skunk” Artjoms Rudnevs with this lack of Latvian

knowledge shows disrespect to the country, also same old story between him and Kaspars Gorkss... This all is getting to become real kindergarten. When I read that article, first time I was speechless. I really didn’t get it – is it a joke?

Next variant was provocation. As we all know, if you write something, it might get lost like invisible ghost so long you don’t mention the word LANGUAGE and then add another word: RUSSIANS. And then there is no need to write any-thing anymore. Comments and views will come by own. So, when I understood all the main deal of this article, I wanted to ask to the authors: why language? How can problems of language knowledge between players or teams can be more important than totalizator scandals, very low level of gameplay or catastrophic situation of the football stadiums? And it surely is.

Can some of you could imagine the fact that country, which has just 1 good football stadium (in Europe it would be called just training ground) with the attendance of 9500 places is planning to remove it and noone knows so far where Na-tional football team will play in future? That in comments people write such stuff like: yeah, seems we will have to play in Lithuania or Estonia, then someone mentioning other sta-diums with the attendance 3000-4000... It is a DISASTER! That is the cruel reality and not language problems! Team’s owner takes active part at game arranging process – that is a DISASTER! National team player receives the ball at the back and all he knows what to do with it is kick it to stands.

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That is a DISASTER! I would be glad to know why there are so few articles about these three biggest and the most important problems of the Latvian football at this day – about game arranging scandals and processes, about very low quality of football stadiums and nonexisting plan for raising good players and coaches from youth age to senior age. Why? At the same time we are forced to read, how disrespectful is Latvian best football striker Art-joms Rudnevs, who can’t speak Latvian... Wake up! The fact he will speak fluently Latvian or not won’t change the situation.

Muddy illusion. Football in Latvia won’t grow into new level, if suddenly all players will speak Latvian. Totaliza-tor scandals will keep going and stadiums won’t get up-graded by own. Why mass media sources pretend to be blind about all other, more serious problems? All, what makes you love sport and your national team, first of all comes from the results. The better results team will show, the biggest interest from people. In Latvia’s case there are no traditions like in England or Italy. So why not to try to put all forces to upgrade the level of the football here? When Latvian national hockey team 10-15 years ago won games in World championships, all were happy. And noone cared (or in the euphoria of some successes even forgot) that at least half of that time Latvian hockey players were Russian speaking people.

It is the story about people qualities, once again. In Lat-via it is even more typical to make up some problem, which actually is a problem, despite over this problem are staying 10 more serious and dangerous problems. In po-litical view – life quality of people, in this case – national football team’s results, local championship, youth training system and stadiums. And it is very sad that football must suffer the most. I can guarantee – if Latvian national team would show the same results as it showed in EURO 2004, noone would even think about such problem like language knowledge. Because then there were few play-ers, who really knew Latvian. Results were a lot better, fans were happy. Now team has just few players, who don’t know Latvian but results are a lot worse and logi-cal – noone is happy. Which situation do you like better, if you claim the problem of language knowledge as one of the main? Only remember – level of play and skills depend just on person, because tongue can’t kick the ball.

football always

had its own and

unique language.football language.

seems that some

latvian fans and

journalists simply

ignore this fact.

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PHOTO BY TOMS GRINBERGS

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asterix

from gdansk

WRITTEN BY CRISTIAN LIBERUM

Two-time World Cup bronze medallist, one of the finest strikers in the history of Polish football. Pole, who looked like a hero from the famous Asterix comics book and had the Gallic qualities, which helped him to succeed in French football. Strong and very agile striker with great leap-ing ability and amazing heading skills. Andrzej Szarmach is still well-remembered in France as he remains Auxerre’s all-time top scorer with 100 goals (94 goals in Ligue 1, 2 in UEFA Cup

and 4 in Coupe de France).

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schools. Coach of Polonia Gdansk youth team noticed talented striker and invited him to attend training ses-sions of his team. Because of work, Szarmach initially declined this offer. However, later his parents gave per-mission to train and play football. Step by step, young Andrzej came close to his debut in senior football.

In 1968, Szarmach joined Polish third-tier side Arka Gdynia. It was a club from another coastal city, lo-cated just 30 km from Gdansk. Season later, Arka was promoted to the second division and Szarmach earned his first caps and scored his first goals in senior football. Young striker finished 1969/70 season with 10 goals in 19 games for Arka. Szarmach left a good impression, and it was clear that he has everything to succeed in Polish football.

After spending another two solid seasons with Arka, 22 years old striker moved to Ekstraklasa side Górnik. Club from Zabrze was one of the leading football clubs in Poland at that time. In late 60’s, Gornik had a ma-jor success not only in Poland, winning five consecutive titles, but also outside its borders. Silesian club was the finalist of 1970 UEFA Cup Winners Cup. Arrival to such titled club was a serious challenge for the young player, although Górnik wasn’t so dominant force in Poland anymore. Szarmach didn’t waste time and quickly progressed, soon becoming one of leading strikers of Górnik. After finishing his debut season in Ekstraklasa with 10 goals, in 1973 Szarmach caught the attention of Kazimierz Górski - manager of Poland national team.

Silver medals in Ekstraklasa and another 10 league goals for Górnik helped Szarmach to earn a place in Poland’s squad for 1974 World Cup tournament in Ger-many. Devil found himself as one of the key players of the national team. He scored some very important goals in the group stage, leading Poland past such teams, as Argentina and Italy. Szarmach also scored a hat-trick against Haiti. Poland went into the next round, where they faced Yugoslavia, Sweden and hosts - West Germany. After wins against Swedes and Yugoslavs, Poland met Germans in a decisive match for the place in the World Cup final. Unfor-tunately, brilliant Polish side was stopped by goal of Gerd Muller. 1-0 and West Germany were in the final. Poland could enjoy only third-place match against Brazil. Grzegorz Lato scored his seventh and last

goal in this tournament, helping his country win the bronze medals of World Cup for the first time. Lato won Golden Boot award of this tournament, but Szarmach tied second place in top scorers list together with Dutchman Johan Neeskens. They both scored 5 goals.

World Cup success was a good lift for Szarmach. His ca-reer went upwards from this moment. Devil improved his goal-scoring rate, and in 1975, he got an offer from another Polish league side Stal Mielec. In the first sea-son with his new club, Szarmach finally won the league title. He scored 16 goals in 29 games. However, he had to forget about celebrations as he was selected as one of the members of Poland team for 1976 Men’s Olym-pic football tournament in Montreal. Four years earlier Poland won the Olympic gold and expectations were high for this tournament. Szarmach became a leader of Olympic squad, leading Poland to the silver medals. He left Canada as the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals.

Szarmach’s career developed in a steady course. Un-fortunately, Stal didn’t had any major success on Eu-ropean stage, and he couldn’t join any foreign club till his 30th birthday, because of the laws Poland had at that time. Despite this harsh law, Szarmach did every-thing coaches expected. Regular scorer, regular starter for Poland. When he finally turned 30, it was time to move. Newly promoted Ligue 1 side Auxerre did eve-rything to bring Szarmach and his compatriot Henryk Wieczorek to France. Auxerre’s manager Guy Roux was one of the first managers, who brought players from Socialistic countries to West. It was an unusual ex-perience as they were Communists. Move of Szarmach and Wieczorek took some time, but Roux’s contacts helped to solve everything, and in the end, both Poles travelled to Auxerre and soon made their debuts in French football.

Auxerre wasn’t in a good position at a moment, when Poles arrived to Burgundy. It was close to the relega-tion zone. However, situation dramatically changed, and Roux proved that he made a right decision, when he invited Szarmach to join his side. At the age of 30, Devil had huge experience behind his back. Two World Cup editions, Olympic Games and several seasons in Polish elite division. No matter what opponents he had to face, he always remained consistent and his perfor-mance remained same in France. Szarmach’s impact was immediate and significant. He scored 16 goals in remaining 20 games for Auxerre and club secured its place in Ligue 1 for another season, finishing 1980/81 season at 10th place.

Szarmach was born five years after World War Two, in Polish coastal city Gdansk. Initially, he played handball and volleyball. Football took its place only in teenage years, when Szarmach found some success in Spartakiad for

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Auxerre was a relatively calm and humble place. Same was Szarmach. A favorite of local fans, he was a hum-ble family man, who never had any problems with discipline. Opponents respected him, Roux knew how to get best out of veteran. Age wasn’t a factor for him. He was getting older but his performance remained consistent and strong. Even in his last season with Auxerre, Szarmach scored 10 goals. He was 35 years old but still capable to bring goals to his team. Still capable to lean higher than defenders of opponent’s team and beat them in an aerial duel. Even controversial Frenchman Eric Cantona remembers Szarmach with a good word: “In 1981, Auxerre had just finished its first season in the First Division. Guy Roux hadn’t regretted signing the striker Szarmach from Poland. He was an exceptional player, cool and modest, who single handedly had ensured his club stayed in the First Division at the end of the season”.

In 1985, Szarmach left Auxerre and joined Ligue 2 side EA Guingamp. He left Burgundy as all-time top scorer of Auxerre with 100 goals, he was twice second best scorer of French league at the end of the season and twice the winner of Umberto Barberis award, which was given to the best foreign player of French league. If you will ask something about Szarmach to local fans in Auxerre, I’m sure they will tell you something good about this Asterix-looking striker from Poland.

Szarmach ended his career with Clermont FC in 1989, being almost 40 years old. He spent last few seasons of his career as player-coach. After fully retiring from professional football, Szarmach managed few French lower-division clubs, then he had a short spell with Zaglebie Lubin. After leaving Aurillac FCA in 2001, Szarmach set-tled in France and ended his managerial career. His most recent appearance in public was related to Euro 2012. Szarmach was selected as one of Poland’s UEFA EURO 2012 ambassadors alongside Zbigniew Boniek.

Looking back at Szarmach’s career, I can say that he was one really underrated striker. Now we can only guess how his career would develop after 1974 World Cup success, if not the strict laws of Poland. I believe that his talent wasn’t realized for 100% because he was forced to play for Polish teams till his 30th birthday. It would be wrong to claim that Polish league was weak back the, but anyway there were stronger teams and leagues available outside its borders. Despite all this, Szarmach was patient, and he worked hard to build at least some legacy in Auxerre. Even in his 30’s he was capable to impress and remain a quality striker. You can really compare him with Asterix. Reliable and brave man, who always was ready to defend the colors of his small town. A Humble hero. Football needs such ones.

while

playing for

auxerre

szarmach

earned an

interesting

nickname

asterix

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VLADISLAV ADAMISHENWRITTEN BY

next starof Borussiadortmund

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This summer UEFA Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund bought one of the best players from former Soviet Union area - Henrikh Mkhitaryan. How did Armenian footballer raised to such heights? You’ll find it out in this article.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan was born January 21, 1989 in capital of Armenia, Yerevan. Just a year after his birth, Mkhitaryan’s family moved to France because his father Hamlet had a chance to leave USSR and join French club ASOA Valence, which was founded by French Armenians. In 1995, Hamlet was diagnosed a brain tumor. He went through several opera-tions, but unfortunately, it didn’t help him to survive. In 1996, Hamlet died at age of 33 and Mkhitaryans returned to their homeland. Young Henrikh joined local football club Pyunik.

In 2003, Mkhitaryan spent 4 months in Sao Paulo, Brazil. There, he had traineeship, and it was a chance to train and live alongside such young talents of Brazilian football, as Lucas (now PSG), Oscar (Chelsea), Hernanes (Lazio) and Denilson (Sao Paulo). After this traineeship, young midfielder returned to Armenia, and three years later, he finally joined Pyunik’s senior team. Mkhitaryan quickly adapted to senior football, and he showed himself as a midfielder, who can not only cre-ate a goal-scoring opportunities for his teammates, but also score a lot of goals by himself. He had that great instinct for goal. No wonder that soon many clubs outside Armenia started to show interest about talented midfielder. Biggest interest came from the Ukraine and in 2009, Ukrainian Premier League club Metalurh Donetsk signed talented Armenian, who just recently had become the winner of Armenian Footballer of the Year award for the first time. His quickly adapted in a new club, and at the start of his second season in Ukraine, another Ukrainian club started to show its interest about Mkhitaryan - Shakhtar Donetsk. Soon deal was completed, and Armenian talent joined Ukrainian champions.

In his first two seasons with Shakhtar, there was a feeling that Mkhitaryan has lost some of his goal-scoring instincts as he scored only 13 goals in first two seasons. However, he was still valuable contributor in attack for his teammates. His confi-dence grew and he gained more and more minutes, soon becoming a key player for Mircea’s Lucescu side.

2012 was a good year for Armenian. He won several individual awards. Ukrainian Premier League Footballer of the Year, Baltic and Commonwealth of Independent States Footballer of the Year, Armenian Footballer of the Year for the third time. Shakhtar won the Ukrainian league and cup. Mkhitaryan also had some memorable journey with Armenia national team, as they were very close to qualifying to Euro 2012. His role in success of the national team was huge.

Talks about his possible transfer to one of the leading European clubs started to appear more often after 2012/13 season, when Mkhitaryan scored 25 goals in 29 Ukrainian Premier League matches, becoming the leagues best goal-scorer and winning another Ukrainian league and cup title. Rumours linked Mkhitaryan with some English Premier League and Bundesliga clubs. Biggest names were Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund. Shakhtar wasn’t really interested to sell their biggest star, but Armenian was ready for a new challenge. He wanted to leave Ukraine, and it was one of the reasons, why he didn’t join Shakhtar in their pre-season training camp in Austria. Mkhitaryan was later fined for this as he didn’t have any excuses for this. English media were reporting that he could be joining Liverpool soon. Merseyside fans were already preparing for a warm welcome as club needed some fresh blood after a disappointing season.

Meanwhile, Mkhitaryan was „invisibly surrounded” by Borussia Dortmund, which signed a four year contract with foot-baller. This move happened unexpectedly, but as it came clear later – it delivered the goods. Henrikh adapted into team perfectly and made himself a great replacement to Mario Gotze, who left the team for joining Bayern Munich. Mkhitaryan made his debut for Borussia already in the second Bundesliga season game against Eintracht Braunschweig, but in the stage four scored twice against another Eintracht – from Frankfurt. Mkhitaryan showed great game in his first Ruhr derby. In this match were seen all his qualities and refined actions: all movements were not spontaneous, he went into his team’s game, he didn’t play individually. Probably, attacking chain Mkhitaryan-Reus-Aubameyang with Lewandowski as the finisher of their attacks can make not less danger for other teams, than it came from Reus and Gotze in the previous season.

By the way – about national teams. How I mentioned before, Henrikh Mkhitaryan defends Armenia’s flag, and he has put his effort to team’s successes. Yes, this team never in its history managed to qualify for the World Cup and European championship final stages, but now chances to do that have grown clearly. Armenia national football team lacks not much, to get the ticket to the final stages it needs to step just one step further, which Armenia can’t do. But with the absence of Mkhitaryan these chances would be a lot lower. As an approvement for this remains the fact that Mkhitaryan is the all-time best goalscorer of the national team of Armenia with 12 goals scored. Yes, it is not much, but team’s second best goalscorer Artur Petrosian scored just 11 goals in 69 matches, which is not quite impressive indicator (although Artur, same as Henrikh, played as a midfielder). However, to reach this goal, in other words – to qualify for championship main stages, team needs a leader, who will always be able to „lift up” the team and also inspire and support the players even at such moments, when it seems that the team is doomed to lose. And if Henrikh Mkhitaryan will become exactly such football player, then in the future we will see how Armenian football fan dreams come true.

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“one thing was when he proved himself and scored goals in shakhtar, ukrainian premier league. com-

pletely different it is, when you are playing for such team like Borussia dortmund and such com-

petition like german Bundesliga.

such player like mkhitaryan would Be good for every team in the world, even Barcelona or real madrid. he has phenomenal footBall skills, vision

of this game and what’s not typical for such tech-nical players – insane speed.

there have Been already few moments in Bundes-liga, when henrikh overran several opponent play-ers almost at the half of the field and kept his run

till the opponent penalty Box, where gave great passes to his teammates, who scored easy goals.”

rolands Juhna, editor-in-chief of michel

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loscgoing strong

WRITTEN BY CRISTIAN LIBERUM

November 4, Stade Pierre-Mauroy. Two goals from Nolan Roux led Lille to a crucial win against Monégasque grand AS Monaco. After this victory, club from Northern France now officially has joined the race for Ligue 1 title 2013/14, along with two billionaire supported grands - Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco. For some fans, it may look as a surprise, but those, who closely follow Ligue 1 shouldn’t perceive such a strong start by Lille as a surprise. There are some logical reasons for such success.

Lille saw some major changes in their squad and managerial staff in presea-son. Rudi Garcia moved to Italy, where he’s having an amazing start with Serie A side AS Roma. His place was quickly taken by former Montpellier manager Rene Girard. It was very smart move from LOSC management as Girard was one of the main reasons, why Montpellier enjoyed success in Ligue 1 and made debut in UEFA Champions League. 59 years old Girard had limited resources in a coastal city of Southern France, but that wasn’t an obstacle to win the 2011 Ligue 1 title. Montpellier was a clear proof that money isn’t a guarantee for success. It’s very important to create a balanced squad with good chemistry and the right attitude. Girard did everything to lead his team past mighty Les Parisiens in a race for the title.

Les Dogues successfully enlarged their budget in summer, selling some of their young talents for €30 million. Olympique Marseille paid €15 million for 20 years old midfielder Florian Thauvin, PSG paid the same price for 19 years old left back Lucas Digne. Lille also earned €8.7 million after the sale of Dimitri Payet (Olympique Marseille) and another €6.3 million were earned from transfer of Aurélien Chedjou, who’s playing for Turkish cham-pions Galatasaray. Overall, Lille earned €45 million on transfers. Their ex-penses were very modest. Just €3 million were spent on Simon Kjaer’s and Julian Jeanvier’s transfers.

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Rene Girard immediately saw the main problems he has to solve with his new club. Poor goalkeeping and problems in defense were the main reason, why Lille was left short of European competitions. At the mo-ment, Lille has one of the best de-fensive lines in Europe and without any doubts, best defense in France. Goalkeeper also isn’t a problem an-ymore. Most surprising here is a fact, that Girard didn’t ask club manage-ment for any expensive transfers. It was enough to bring back from loan 30 years old goalkeeper Vincent En-yeama and buy Kjaer from Wolfs-burg. After winning African Cup of Nations 2013 with Nigeria, En-yeama provides very consistent and spectacular performance in Ligue 1. Kjaer also quickly find himself as one of the leading Lille’s defenders. He has formed a great partnership with experienced Montenegrin cen-tre-back Mario Baša. Mistakes hap-pen very rarely so far. While all the key defenders of Lille’s are healthy, Rene Girard should have no worries about his defensive line.

Captain of Lille Rio Mavuba is one of the most experienced players in the team. He joined Les Dogues back in 2008, and for the last seven seasons, Mavuba has become a cornerstone of Lille’s midfield.

Lille has a good balance not only in defense but also in attack. Nolan Roux has found himself in a good form in the past month. 25 years old Frenchmen has scored five goals in his seven Ligue 1 appearances so far, and he has good chances to score more goals, than he did last season (8 goals). Salomon Kalou also is showing his presence. Ivorian striker has scored 3 goals so far. Some-times he lacks consistency, and there were few matches this season, when Kalou’s performance was weak, but overall he’s still the same, technically gifted striker, who can get past several defenders and earn penalties for his team in crucial moments.

Of course, at the moment it’s early to make any predictions about potential champion at the end of the season. A lot can change in just a few weeks. However, one thing is clear. Lille has ambitions to win back their place in Champions League and dream about another silverware. Les Dogues have some advantages against their opponents. They don’t have to worry about European competitions this season. At this point of the season, that may be not so important moment. When season will come closer to its end, fatigue and injuries could be the key factors in decisive games. Especially, against PSG. There is doubt that Les Parisiens gonna try to achieve at least the same result in Champions League they had last season.

January transfer window could also significantly improve Lille’s positions against PSG and Mo-naco. Girard is used to work with limited resources. Now situation is different. Club can afford to bring some quality additions, and I’m sure - Girard will choose the right players to fill the gaps in his squad.

Future could be bright for Lille. New stadium, proper management and experienced manager, who is a real professional. However future looks unclear at the moment as there is a major concern about upcoming 75% tax. Such drastic changes could lead to a slow death of French football. Many clubs already have debts and various economical problems to solve. New tax will make life only harder for them. Even for Qatar Investment Authority funded PSG, new tax gonna be a major hit. It will definitely create some problems for the club’s management.

While 75% tax isn’t applied yet, there are plenty of interesting Ligue 1 matches coming up. De-cember is going to be very intense month for Lille. They will play against Marseille (04/12), Bor-deaux (07/12) and Paris Saint-Germain (21/12). If Rene Girard’s side will be able to get most of these fixtures, Lille gonna dramatically increase their chances to win the title. Team has changed a lot since the departure of Eden Hazard, but it’s still interesting group of players to follow and support. Lille has consistent, well-organized and versatile squad, which isn’t afraid to showcase all their best to keep fans excited. Allez!

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7

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andrew giBney, editor of french football weekly

“lille’s recent success has Been a little of a sur-prise. after the players that left the cluB this sum-mer and the low key recruitments Brought in to replace them, it was supposed to Be a season of

transition. girard has followed the Blueprint of his successful montpellier side, starting with a

solid defence and Building it forward.

the return of vincent enyeama has Been incrediBle, amazing that garcia didn’t rate him ahead of ela-na. new signing simon kJaer has adapted magnifi-

cently alongside marko Basa. for €2 million, kJaer has actually Been an upgrade on the sometimes

reckless aurelien chedJou. pape souare has Been a huge surprise at full Back, he continues to impress.

girard has also provided a new lease of life to the midfield. strengthening the defence has taken the strain off Both rio mavuBa and florent Balmont and has allowed idrissa gueye to Blossom. the

senegalese midfielder provides that extra Burst of energy that ignites this tough lille side.”

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rising starsof Bundesligaseason 2013/14

top 7

WRITTEN BY ROLANDS JUHNA

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Season in football is already on routine stage, when games following one after another and weekend for football fans becomes very charged. A lot of games, goals, results, controversial decisions and more and more. German Bundesliga is not an exception. It is one of the best football leagues in the world, a place, where people really love football. Also Bundesliga is very special for those, who like to see arising some new talents, rising stars of football who have the best potential to grow up to world class football players, which means not only represent-ing their national team but also playing for the team which competes in Champions League. Season 2013/2014 brings to us many more talents. And despite it is not even in the middle, al-ready now we can put up some rising stars of it and get to know – why they and noone else?

(Borussia Dortmund, 24 years old, in Bundesliga since 2013). Although Henrikh came to Borussia Dortmund as a poten-tial team leader and was bought for very solid money (27,5 million euros), I simply couldn’t exclude him from this „rising star” list. One thing was when he proved himself and scored goals in Shakhtar, Ukrainian Premier League. Completely different it is, when you are playing for such team like Borussia Dortmund and such competition like German Bundes-liga. Such player like Mkhitaryan would be good for every team in the world, even Barcelona or Real Madrid. He has phenomenal football skills, vision of this game and what’s not typical for such technical players – insane speed. There have been already few moments in Bundesliga, when Henrikh overran several opponent players almost at the half of the field and kept his run till the opponent penalty box, where gave great passes to his teammates, who scored easy goals. If needed, he can score by own as well as he did while playing for Shakhtar. Borussia has bit different playing style, so he adapts to it and does it well. Without any doubt, Mkhitaryan in these months has gone one level up and now every summer he will be linked to all those transfer rumours from other big clubs, when title of the articles starts with: ...interested in Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

henrikh mkhitaryan

(Borussia Monchengladbach, loaned out from Bayer Leverkusen, 22 years old, in Bundesliga since 2011). Former Ger-many U-19 and U-20 player. Another one pretty young German talent, who first appeared at the Bayer Leverkusen squad in 2011, signing a deal with the club until year 2017. However, his debut at the Bundesliga level didn’t come right then. He was loaned out to 2. Bundesliga team VfL Bochum, where he spent two seasons. Apparently, after that time Leverkusen still thought they are not in big need of Kramer, so he got loaned out to his current club Borussia from Monchengladbach. There he will be playing until summer of 2015 and how for moment seems – Borussia has got the real luck. Kramer took part already at 12 Bundesliga matches, making his Bundesliga debut against Bayern Munchen in August 9th. So far Kramer has scored one goal and delivered one goalscoring pass. While playing mostly as a defen-sive midfielder, these statistics prove that by chance he can be valuable in the attacking line as well, defensive play and ruining the attacks of opponents he likes better though. And it can be seen he has real talent on that. He has received 3 yellow cards in Bundesliga this season, and this fact says that Kramer is doing all his best to stop opponent attacks. And since he is going well with it, he gets a chance to play at the starting squad mostly. Without doubt, one of the best new defensive midfielder type young German players not only in Bundesliga, but in whole Europe.

christoph kramer

(Hannover 96, 23 years old, in Bundesliga since 2012). More and more new Japanese talents appear in highest level. Hiroki Sakai is not an exception. In the summer 2012 Sakai signed a 4 year deal with Hannover and it was not a buy-ing from German side just for a blind luck. Management of Hannover noticed Sakai while he played at Japanese club Kashiwa Reysol. As being right back, he showed confident performance and Hannover wanted to get him into their squad. First season was not the best one for Sakai. He took his part only at 13 matches of the season and was rather reserve squad player than player of starting line-up. In this season things have changed and Sakai seems to be an important figure for Hannover. His playing style is kinda aggressive (4 yellow cards in this season already) but with all that – promising one. Sakai is playing a modern football and as in the modern football it is accepted – highest class right and left backs are taking their part into creating attacks and delivering crossings. Sakai is doing exactly such job. And so far he has done it very well. Technically advanced and with good fighting skills. Not typically for Japanese play-ers with fine height – Sakai is 184 cm, which is perfect height for wing back. Very universal player and very important for Hannover in the next seasons.

(Schalke 04, 18 years old, in Bundesliga since 2013). German football will never be dead. Not only Kramer but also Max Meyer says it. Just being 18 years old, Meyer made his debut on Bundesliga level on August 17th, in the match against Wolfsburg. It was terrible match for his team, because Wolfsburg won this game 4:0. It was not crucial for Meyer though and just one month later, on September 28th in the match against Hoffenheim he came on the pitch at the starting 11. Meyer has been playing at all Germany national team squads and for the moment is a player of Germany U-19 team. This guy has a huge potential in the future to become a real star. Remembering that Meyer is not a pure striker but attacking midfielder, while being so young, he managed to score 3 goals in 9 Bundesliga matches, one goal he scored was against Borussia Dortmund. It says a lot about this footballer. He is not with strong build or impressive height but he doesn’t need it – he has born footballer talent, great skills and game understanding. These things can’t be taught. You just have them or you lack them. Meyer has it all and his age allows to say that he has still time to progress and grow just better and better. And I am sure he will let us know about him even more in future.

max meyer

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(Hertha BSC, 25 years old, in Bundesliga since 2008). From some aspect it might look like a stupid choice. 25 years old, made debut in Bundesliga long ago, what rising star? Even more according to the fact that Bundesliga, in my opinion, is the only one such level league where are playing the biggest amount of talented young goalkeepers – Bernd Leno, Marc Andre ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp and many more and more. But with Kraft situation is bit different.

(Stuttgart, 23 years old, in Bundesliga since 2013). Who is he? Where did he come from? I guess such was the first reac-tion for many Bundesliga fans, who first saw this Romanian attacking midfielder on the pitch this season, despite he played at this level also in the previous season. Maybe we would not even talk about him and he would stay unnoticed, just if he... Would be an average footballer or reserve squad player. But Maxim is not at all such. Before few years he was such though. Spending few years in Spain (from 2009 to 2011), Maxim didn’t let to know about him. He was quite invisible and didn’t score even in Espanyol B team. In 2011 he returned to his motherland and signed a contract with CS Pandurii Târgu Jiu. On 31 January 2013, Maxim joined VfB Stuttgart for a fee of €1.5m. He later signed a four-and-a-half year contract worth €480k per year. Maxim made his debut for Stuttgart on 14 February 2013 during the Round of 32 of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League knockout phase against K.R.C. Genk. On 23 February 2013, he made his Bundesliga debut against 1. FC Nuremberg. On 30 March 2013, Maxim scored his first goal for VfB Stuttgart, in a game against reigning champions Borussia Dortmund. Why he was not noticeable already then? Because 1 scored goal, 11 matches, it is not something special. He was not a leader of the Stuttgart, he needed a time to adapt to the Bundesliga level. Logically that noone paid big attention to him. Such players come and go, even more it happens in Bundesliga, where are playing 20 teams and player rotations happen every now and then. But Maxim didn’t want to be the one who comes and goes. He wanted to become a leader of the team. And now he has managed to do it. In 10 matches Romanian international has scored 4 goals and given 8 assists. And these are only numbers, which are impressive of course. But if you watch some Stuttgart game, then you forget about these numbers but see his game. And Maxim’s performance is unbelievable. He has become one of the team’s leaders just in bit more than half year playing at this team. And he is not a native guy. So it makes him even more special. Maxim is one of those footballers, who has had a hidden talent but didn’t know how to use it. Now he has opened it and seems he is just getting better with each new game. From all new rising stars, he is the one who is the most surprising one in my eyes. For the moment, he is Stuttgart and Romania national team leader. In future he might become not just a leader but stable value for every team at every level.

alexandru maxim

hiroki sakai

thomas kraft

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He made his debut in Bundesliga while playing at such team like Bayern Munich, however, he was nothing more than just a reserve goalkeeper there and didn’t take part at many matches. His real playing at the Bundesliga level started in 2011, when he was traded to his current club Hertha BSC. No matter trying, it was doomed season to the club from Berlin, same as it was for Kraft. Many loses led to the situation that Hertha was relegated to the 2.Bundesliga. At that moment Kraft wasn’t as stable goalkeeper as he is now. So apparently 2.Bundesliga helped him to get back some con-fidence. Kraft started to play better, same as all team did, so that they got rights to return to the Bundesliga in season 2013/2014. And now Kraft is one of those, thanks to whom Hertha is where it is – in the TOP 8 of Bundesliga teams. While being a relative newcomer to this league, Hertha is playing very solid defensive game and is one of the best in whole Bundesliga at this aspect. And big credit of this success comes from Kraft’s confident play at his line. No matter he is not that young generally, 25 years for goalkeeper is still not big age, so he has all the chances to get even better within time and maybe in future get close to the doors of Germany national team, who knows?

(Eintracht Frankfurt, 21 years old, in Bundesliga since 2013). Despite this season for Frankfurt is not as successful as the previous one and for now team is close to relegation zone, situation could be even worse if no such player in the attack-ing line like Vaclav Kadlec plays for the team. Kadlec spent 5 seasons (2008-2013) at his birthplace club Sparta Prague, where he showed good scoring abilities. Thanks to that, he got his ticket to Bundesliga and has been very solid so far – 4 goals and 2 assists in 9 matches, as well as 2 goals in Europa League competition. Kadlec is quite technical player, who mostly likes play on the ground, not on the air. Technical player with good thinking, while being so young he has still many chances to progress and improve his play. But just the fact that he has been called to all Czech Republic’s national teams and is now playing for adult national team says a lot – he is very perspective guy and good choice from Frankfurt side. We will hear about him more in future games.

vaclav kadlec

vaclav kadlec

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thomas kraft

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