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The 100 best players in France named (AKA Graham Carr’s shopping list)

8 years ago
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The 100 best players in France have been named, with a lot of players linked with Newcastle included on the list, though others are missing…

The latest list of the best in Ligue 1 (or Ligue 2) has been compiled the excellent Get French Football News and to qualify, players had to be contracted to a French club on 31 December 2015.

Over the course of the last 12 months 386m euros was spent on players who were playing in France, more than any other league according to GFFN.

Here are some of the players linked with Newcastle in recent times, as well as some other players of interest.

The position in the list appears before each player’s name and I’ve named the first couple just for information, not because they have been linked with NUFC!

1 – Thiago Silva (PSG Defender)

2 – Ibrahimovic (PSG Striker)

18 – Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon Striker)

24 – Paul-Georges Ntep (Rennes Striker)

31 – Diego Rolan (Bordeaux Striker)

35 – Michy Batshuayi (Marseille Striker)

38 – Hatem Ben Arfa (Nice)

64 – Steven Mandanda (Marseille Goalkeeper)

93 – Salvatore Sirigu (PSG Goalkeeper)

Interesting to see Hatem Ben Arfa rated so highly and part of GFFN’s write up on his is below.

With the January transfer window opening tomorrow, there have been claims this morning of two players strongly linked with a move early in the window.

Diego Rolan at 31 (in the list) if obviously highly rated by the GFFN French football experts (Rolan had a fallout with the Bordeaux manager which contributed to him being left out of the team for a number of matches), however his Bordeaux team-mate Henri Saivet doesn’t even appear in the 100 despite Newcastle’s claimed interest.

No Remy Cabella in the list, or Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa who is now at Lyon.

Hatem Ben Arfa

‘It is fair to say the level of expectation for Ben Arfa was not particularly high, a player without a minute of football since the previous autumn was hardly to be expected to bring about miracles.

Several unflattering photos emerged of Ben Arfa in training ahead of the season that seemed to go along with this image of Ben Arfa as a sort of faded superstar.

In a Ligue 1 season where two promoted sides sit in the top four Nice have been of the stories of the season thus far.

From training with Newcastle’s reserves and being frozen out at Hull, Ben Arfa ends 2015 as one of Ligue 1’s best performers

in a young team packed with youthful energy and vigour. There is already talk of a transfer away from Nice and France for the five-time French title winner, however the Nice president has quashed all talk of a January move.

Ben Arfa’s is clearly in a good place at the moment: he is able to express himself and has a manager that believes in him with his teammates also reliant on him to provide that creative spark that he is so good at doing.’

To see the full 100 go here.

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