neloangelo
Elder Lister
- “There have been other stories about divisions within the dressing room, friction between players and a lack of togetherness that can be demonstrated, perhaps, by the fact Raphael Varane, Antoine Griezmann and Clement Lenglet were allowed to fly off on holidays rather than travelling back with the rest of the squad, as is the norm.”
- “One of their issues from Euro 2020 was that they did not feel settled at their Marriott hotel in Budapest and, barring one evening on the rooftop bar, did not have enough opportunities to relax together. Apparently, some of the players were unhappy about their city-centre location and wanted more luxurious facilities. One complaint was that the bedroom windows did not fully open. The squad were initially meant to move to Gardony, 40 miles south, after their group game against Hungary and take up residence in a hotel on the shores of Lake Velence. Instead, they remained in Budapest to play their final group game against Portugal. According to a near-forensic post-mortem in the French sports daily L’Equipe, Pogba had made it clear to Deschamps that the players ‘hated’ the accommodation and wanted to leave as soon as possible.”
- “Rabiot’s mother is known to be very sensitive and very close to her son and she didn’t appreciate what Pogba’s friends were saying about one of the touches of Adrien,’ says one well-placed source with inside knowledge of the French camp. ‘So she blamed Pogba for the loss of the ball in midfield (leading to Switzerland’s third goal). Then she went to Mbappe’s father, ‘You better take care of your son because he has a big head and too much protection from the press and I think he’s arrogant.’ So it’s a mess and she is well known for that at Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.”
- “At one point, she wrote to Deschamps to complain that her son was not being picked enough. Or there was the time when PSG would not let her accompany her son on a trip to Qatar midway through his first season. Outraged, Veronique took up a position outside Carlo Ancelotti’s office, waiting for the coach to arrive so she could let him know exactly what she thought of it.”
- “The dispute involving Veronique [Rabiot] is said to have lasted, on and off, for 20 minutes, including a ‘heated exchange’ with Mbappe’s mother, Fayza Lamari. The families of the other French players were reportedly ‘shocked’ by Veronique’s conduct and particularly the timing of it, having just watched the team crash out of the tournament. But it is also worth knowing the background here and one of the reasons, perhaps, why she is so protective of her son and takes such a prominent role in his career, representing him in all his contract negotiations and regularly speaking on his behalf in the media. She, indeed, negotiated his first professional contract when he was a teenager, sitting face-to-face with PSG sporting director Leonardo. In 2007, when Rabiot was a 12-year-old in the youth system at US Creteil, his father, Michel, suffered a stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome, a condition that meant he was completely paralysed. Michel, a PSG supporter who used to run his son to youth-team matches, was left in a wheelchair and could communicate only by moving his eyelids. He died in January 2019. ‘What you have to understand here is her background,’ says one person with close knowledge of the family. ‘She singlehandedly raised three boys with a handicapped husband, and I mean seriously handicapped. Her husband was in hospital most of Adrien’s life. He was very poorly. He had his brain but could not talk. He was in a cocoon. This woman suffered a lot. She stands her ground. She goes overboard but she raised her boys and took her son everywhere for football, no matter if it was minus five degrees and snow. And she is an honest woman. She gives money to church. She was (from a) very poor upbringing. She is really hard-nosed. She is not a prima donna. She gives back to people who helped her before. Is she too loud? Yes. But she has a lot of baggage. The context is everything. She is not a bad person. And she will always defend her son to death.”
- “Various observers have told The Athletic they believe Benzema’s return to the squad had a number of consequences. How, they ask, must Giroud have felt, as the second highest scorer in France’s history, to be displaced almost overnight by a player who had openly derided him?”
- “One long-time follower of the national team describes it as a ‘vicious group.’ Deschamps had previously dropped Samir Nasri and Hatem Ben Arfa after taking the view they were not suited to play ‘squad football.’ Now questions are being asked about whether there might have to be some more tough decisions.”
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