Newsies For This Week

By: Inara | February 11th, 2009

I plan to post a much longer entry tomorrow about Lyon’s winter transfer season (or lack thereof), but for now, here are some other things that I wanted to mention that don’t deserve their own post.

First off, it’s INTERNATIONAL TIME!!! That’s good news and bad. Good because some players get some rest, bad because others get worked even harder. The list of players don’t contain surprises, but it’s a smaller group of players this time thanks to injuries (Francois Clerc, Sidney Govou, John Mensah) and the fact that some countries don’t have friendlies scheduled despite the international break (Miralem Pjanic).

The call ups:

France (vs. ~~Messi~~ Argentina – 2/11/09): Jeremy Toulalan, Karim Benzema, Hugo Lloris, Jean-Alain Boumsong (who actually deserves it, no joke guys).

Cameroon (vs. Guinea, 2/11/09): Jean II Makoun

Côte d’Ivoire (vs. Turkey, 2/11/09): Kader Keita

Sweden (vs. Austria, 2/11/09): Kim Kallstrom

Italy (vs. Brazil, 2/10/09): Fabio Grosso *

* This game already took place today, but I forgot that Italy was playing a day earlier than everyone else. Oops. By the way, Italy lost 2-0, and Grosso – the sole Italian scorer – had his goal discounted. Poor guy.

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John Mensah has made the African Finest XI, a list based on the votes of the coaches of the 53 teams that make up the Confederation of African football. Our favorite Glass Ghanean joins an all star cast that includes Samuel Eto’o, Michael Essien, Mohammed Aboutreika, Emmanuel Adebayor, Yaya Toure, and Taye Taiwo.

What I’d like to know is what games the voters were watching, because I can count on one hand how many times John Mensah has played this year. Even before arriving at Lyon, he was oft-injured at Rennes, and his fitness was so-so during Ghana’s African Cup of Nations campaign (I should know, I blogged for Ghana during that month). Even his NT coach is frustrated by his injuries. So I’m just a little bit confused on how Mensah got into such an exclusive list. Was it his muscles? His personality? His smile?!?!?!

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Kader Keita crashed his Lamborghini into a van yesterday while on the way to the airport to join his NT teammates. Thankfully, no one was injured. The police checked to make sure he wasn’t taking drunk driving lessons from Sid the Kid, and once they verified that it was just a “simple” car accident, the police escorted him to the airport so he could make his flight on time.

Sigh. The life of a footballer.

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Fred is trying to leave Lyon again. Ugh.

I’m really tired of all his drama. He’s like a little kid who announces to everyone that he’s running away while secretly expecting everyone to beg him to stay. Except no one is, so he’s sulking even more than usual.

Can’t he just leave a note on his locker like everyone else?

For those of you who care, basically Fred has come to a very lucrative agreement with Fluminense. Unlike in Europe, the Brazilian mercato ends in early April, so that’s the only place he can go to right now. The Brazilian club has agreed to pay him a monthly salary of €120,000 as well as a signing bonus of €680,000. However, Fred’s agent (and brother) is claiming that the negotiations are stalled because Lyon aren’t paying Fred all the money that he’s owed (basically his performance bonuses).

However, Lyon have hit back saying that last December, Fred, in the presence of Bernard Lacombe, Jean-Michel Aulas, and club administrator Marino Faccioli, asked that he be released from his contract so that he could be sign for free in Brazil, and in return, the club wouldn’t have to pay him any of the bonuses stipulated in his contact.

Except now, Fred is demanding those bonuses, and Lyon won’t budge. The club’s official comment was that they find his lapse in memory ironic.

Ironic is a polite way of saying something much more foul, if you ask me. It says a lot that Puel, who besides Karim Benzema, doesn’t have any other serious option up front, is willing to let Fred leave halfway through the season despite the fact that the title race is in full swing.

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Hugo: Ederson left me for the Brazilians.
Jeremy: That’s okay, I’ll be your new BFF!
Hugo: Yay! First thing we’ll do is get you a better wardrobe.
Inara: Awww. Cute. ~~*Cuddle*~~
Karim: *Embarrassed* I can’t believe I have to sit next to the dorky old people. This is so totally hurting my ~hip~ image.

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And since we’re on the subject of overly dramatic strikers, Karim Benzema has softened his previous words (when he said that he would probably leave if Lyon got kicked out of the CL knockout rounds) by saying that he’s happy at Lyon, and that most likely, he’ll stay until the World Cup. But he was careful to also say that he’ll take a long look at his situation this summer, taking Lyon’s CL campaign into account. Comments from his BFF Eric Abidal might have had something to do with his recent about-face.

If Benzema does leave, there is at least one striker who wouldn’t mind coming to Lyon. Loic Remy, despite having a great season with Nice, has never lost his desire for making an impact at his childhood club, and he admitted that should an offer come, he wouldn’t be averse to it. This comes on the heels of the news that there is a buyout clause in his contract just for Lyon.

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And in somewhat good news, Mathieu Bodmer (remember him?) played with the CFAs this weekend, his first real game in months. Francois Clerc was also supposed to play, but at the last minute the club doctor decided to wait a while longer, especially since knee injuries are in danger of relapses if they are not properly healed.