Poland vs France Preview ; Zinedine Zidane has called for new France sensation Marvin Martin to be "left in peace". The French legend's comments come after Martin's two-goal debut against Ukraine earlier this week led to suggestions that the national team finally had a successor to the 1998 World Cup-winning playmaker.
Martin came off the substitutes' bench to score a brace in the 4-1 win in Donetsk on Monday and could be set for further action when Laurent Blanc's team take on the other Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland in Warsaw on Thursday.His display brought back memories of the great Zidane's debut against the Czech Republic in 1994, when he too scored twice after coming off the bench.
But the former Real Madrid star tried to ease some of the hype surrounding Martin as he told Le Parisien: "There have often been comparisons made with me. This is nothing new, we have already done this in the past and with (Michel) Platini also. That said, I think this player has a future, although there are also some others.
"I think we should actually leave him alone and let him be himself. What matters is not so much the goals he scored but his 20 minutes of play, but he would not try to be Zidane because there's only one Zidane. I hope he will be a good number 10, but this requires for him to be left in peace."
Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri trained apart from the main group with one of the French team physios on Tuesday, while Cedric Carrasso, Mathieu Valbuena, Guillaume Hoarau and Charles N'Zogbia are expected to start having not featured at all either in the Ukraine friendly or the Euro 2012 qualifier against Belarus last Friday.
Lille midfielder Ludovic Obraniak is set to line up against Les Bleus, having been born and brought up in France. The 26-year-old, who has a Polish grandfather, admitted he had problems initially in winning over the sceptics, having made his debut for Poland in August 2009. He told L'Equipe: "It was not easy, but it helped that I scored twice in my first match (against Greece in a friendly).
"It gave me credibility because nobody knew me there. When you do not speak the language, it's as if you were a foreigner. There are some who saw me as a direct competitor, others who have criticised me for snatching the place of another. "That caused some small tensions in the beginning, but today [Wednesday] I am integrated, I'm working, I'm learning Polish and I try to speak as much as possible in that language."
Obraniak, as a player who came through the French youth system before representing another country at senior level, poured scorn on the idea floated in a meeting of senior French Football Federation officials to adopt a quota limiting dual-nationality youngsters entering the national academy.
"You cannot blame someone who does not play for France to choose to defend his country of origin," Obraniak said.
"For me, it's an unsolvable problem. And do not forget that if these famous 'quotas' had been imposed a few years ago, France would perhaps have missed out on great players. Zidane is of Algerian origin, Platini of Italian origin ... This discussion has raised many problems and ultimately not achieved much." Read More
0 comments: