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FC Barcelona player Dani Alvez of Brazil, right, duels for the ball with Bayern Munich player Franck Ribery, from France, during their Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona in Munich, southern Germany, on Tuesday, April 14, 2009. AP Photo/Manu Fernandez
Long ago, in a universe far, far away (when I was writing for Fox Sports), I penned a piece about Franck Ribery, who, to most Australians even a year after the 2006 World Cup where he starred for Les Bleus, was just an obscure French footballer with a smashed-up face and a bit of talent.
Ironically, in the May 2007 column, I lambasted Manchester United for spending $40 million on then-Bayern Munich midfielder Owen Hargreaves and opined that “If they had any real smarts, they’d be making a beeline for one Franck Ribery … a smart club … will know there is no time to waste or expense to spare when a talent like Ribery’s comes along”.
“My own view, for what it’s worth, is that on the transfer market Ribery could outprice even Kaka or Cristiano Ronaldo. From a purely footballing point of view, he is a very shrewd investment, whatever the price.
“Then there is his marketability … with his car-crash looks and Muslim faith, Ribery is the anti-Beckham, which ironically makes him a prime candidate to be the unchallenged cult hero of European football for the next 20 years. (Just look how Eric Cantona and Vinnie Jones parlayed their notoriety and tough-guy personae into a nice little earner in their post-playing careers. Ribery, with a face straight from a Dick Tracy comic strip, could walk into a Guy Ritchie or Martin Scorsese movie any time he wanted to).
“Personality doesn’t win Premierships, talent does. But the best thing about Ribery is he has both of those qualities in excelsis … whoever gets the Frenchman’s signature stands to win big time, on and off the park.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
It’s nice to be an oracle from time to time. Sir Alex Ferguson needs to read more Australian football blogs because he could have saved himself a shitload of money if he’d listened when I first wrote that
story. Hargreaves has been a disaster and Ribery is now the most expensive footballer on the planet.
And, lo and behold, Manchester United want him.
The amount of money Bayern are reportedly asking is staggering.
An incredible £62.5m ($A127m) that is contingent on Réal Madrid picking up the bill for Cristiano Ronaldo. The club denies they are sniffing around the dressing sheds of southern Germany, but we’ve all heard football porkies like that before, haven’t we?
But is it good business? I think it is.
Putting aside the fact the amount of money is disgusting, Ribery was always going to move on to a bigger club from Bayern. It was a staging post. Just as Ronaldo was always going to move on from Man U.
Réal is the club that Ronaldo will likely make his last, just as Man U is likely to be Ribery’s.
Even before Germany 2006 Ribery was being labelled the “new Zidane” but he also stands to be the “new Cantona”.
He has the football skills of Zidane but also the personality and raw street appeal of Cantona. It’s an irresistible combination.
Ronaldo is a magnificent footballer but he is a showpony with the personality of a plank.
Long term, Ribery has much more to offer Manchester United. He scores less goals than Ronaldo but is arguably more versatile and mobile, a playmaker rather than out-and-out striker.
More importantly, though, he’s inspirational.
For his past two clubs – Marseille, Bayern – he’s been a talisman on the park and training pitch, a hard-running, creative individual that his teammates look up to and funnel all their play through.
And for Les Bleus he has precisely the same influence and impact.
If Manchester United are serious about staying at the top of the summit of European football, which there is little doubt they are given the money they’re prepared to splash out to augment their playing roster, they could scarcely make a better investment than Ribery – whatever the price.
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