Part 3: World Cup flops with points to prove this season
The new season is on the verge of starting and a lot of players will be looking to start on a clean slate after their previous dissapointing performances. These player’s will be looking to get a shot at redeeming their super star status once again. Here is the countinuation of the list from part one and two of this article, with a few more players who will be looking to go all out this season.
One of the most disappointing teams at this year’s World Cup was easily the national side that was set to represent France. The French team proved to have one of the most controversial World Cup campaigns ever witnessed in the world of football.
It was a tournament that was filled with controversy and amidst this controversy, the player who stood out the most was Chelsea’s forward, Nickolas Anelka. Anelka had been a stand out performer for Chelsea all season long contributing some crucial goals and assists. It was these moments of brilliance displayed by the French man that aided Chelsea along their road to lifting the Premier League trophy. These contributions led to the striker being a part of the French team that was set to travel to South Africa to participate in the World cup.
However soon after following a substitution during a game, the media started spreading rumours that there was a bust up between Anelka and the French coach, Domenech. This bust up led to the player being sent home early. As a direct result the French squad started a protest, which saw the team missing out on crucial training sessions.
France were eliminated from the group stages of the tournament at the bottom of their table and were voted to be one of the most disappointing teams at the World Cup.
Anelka however has taken the failure of the World Cup to heart. He has promised Chelsea fan’s that he will be in top form during the approaching season and will be looking to break his personal records at the club. This could only be good news for the club and the fans of the club, who would be hoping that Anelka can bounce back from the disappointing World Cup that the player had.
Another French player who was part of the troublesome squad is Franck Ribery. Ribery was expected to be the driving force behind the French team. He was expected to build on the tremendous run in that he had at the FIFA World Cup in 2006. However the player did just the opposite. Ribery was one of th most disappointing players on one of the most disappointing squads.
Ribery’s campaign could easily be summed up in word and that one word would be, ‘Selfish.’ The player tried to shoot from where ever he could, he refused to pass the ball to players who were open in front of goal and managed to ask for the ball every opportunity that he got.
Ribery didn’t do so bad domestically last season with Munich. Munich managed to finish as runners up in the UEFA Champions League, finishing second to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan. Ribery was one of the key players in the German team’s campaign. However that form was largely missing in the World Cup. Soon after the conclusion of the tournament Ribery, was caught amidst a scandal involving underage women. Ribery has said that he will be going into the new season keeping all of what has happened this past year in mind, the player claims that all of this would work as fuel to motivate him to work even harder this coming season.
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