UPDATE - Makelele’s move is official as he’s come to terms with Ligue 1 side Paris St. Germain after spending 5 years and playing out his contract at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea.

Makelele’s initial move from Real Madrid cost Chelsea 16.8 Million Pound and caused a stir in the Spanish capital with many of the Galactico’s unhappy that their most underrated / most coveted player was sold.

The move to Paris will reunite the 35 year old with his partner and son who live in the city.

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After publicly stinging the French set up, Eric “the Great” Cantona will not be happy after picking up today’s paper as the French Federation’s President Jean-Pierre Escalettes has somewhat surprisingly announced that Raymond Domenech will stay on in his job as France head coach, provided he make a few change.

We’ve already seen what Domenech can do with a squad that many think should be obvious contenders for whatever competition their placed in, but with so many players on the outs with a coach that has some serious issues behind the scenes many have wondered when Domenech would step down or at the very least be forced to.

I’m still surprised he got out of the stadium after that 2008 Euro performance.

The guy who made Arsenal fans not care about Ashley Cole leaving for Chelsea will be around for a lot longer after agreeing to a new extension deal.

Gael Clichy, the 22 year old Frenchman who made more appearances than any other Arsenal player last year and was named in the Players Footballers’ Association team of the year has signed a new deal that The Voyeur Wenger described as long term.

You have to wonder why France coach Raymond Domenech omitted Clichy from the Provisional squad, much less the full team after deciding to play Abidal at center back (maybe because he left Mexes at home), a position he obviously wasn’t comfortable with.

image via ArsenalPics

Just an absolute shocker yesterday for France’s Raymond Domenech and it seems like they just couldn’t get out of the stadium quick enough.

Big props to TheOffside for finding this one.

This could be one of the tightest fight / chase scenes to hit the big screen worldwide, but mainly seen only in France.

Now the guys behind District B13 are looking to make a sequel to their 2004 smash hit with the follow up being District B14 and will continue to be heavy on the fighting and Parkour action.

For those that might not know what parkour is, wikipedia defines it as “an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment—from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls—and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas.”

Anyone else imagine torn ACL’s and Compound Fractures (NSFW) if they tried this?

Huge match today in Zurich as France as are set to face Italy on ESPN at 11.30am (West Coast) while Holland take on Romania on ESPN Classic at the same time in Berne, Switzerland.
Group C

Holland - 6 pts +6 goal difference

Romania - 2 pts 0

France - 1 pts -3

Italy - 1 pts -3

Will we see the great Zizou make an appearance in the stands today?

FC Uptown

image via TheOffside

Thierry Henry has joined a very elite club after appearing in France’s 1-nil win over Colombia the other night.

Thuram, Desailly, Deschamps, Vieira, Zidane and now Henry have all worn the Les Blues jersey at least 100 times and for Henry, it doesn’t look to end any time soon.

France is in preparations for their Euro 2008 Group of Death (which consists of Romania, Holland and Italy) and you’ve got to think that the weight of expectations are squarely on the shoulders of Henry and Franck Ribery.

image via GoogleImages

DOUBLE UPDATE - Matheiu Flamini has been recalled by Raymond Domenech after Patrick Vieira injured his left ankle and will miss (at the very least) the opening match of the 2008 Euros against Romania on June 9th. Vieira has already missed both warm up matches against Ecuador and Paraguay.

I always wonder how players deal with being cut and then recalled less than a week later. Was Flamini on vacation or is he still pissed about being cut?

Every team has until Sunday to make changes to their squads as it’s the final day for roster deadlines.

UPDATE - France head coach Raymond Domenech has let go some huge names in the world of international football while naming his 23 man roster for the 2008 European Championships.

Djibril Cisse, Phillipe Mexes, Matheiu Flamini and Alou Diarra will miss out on the finals with the surprising moves.

The biggest surprise for the French with Cisse’s exclusion was the inclusion of Bafetimbi Gomis, though it was well deserved after scoring two goals against Ecuador after his second half International debut.

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Frances’ Franck Ribery has been named the best player in the Bundesliga, winning 57.8% of the 268 player vote.

Ribery’s Munich teammate Luca Toni was named 2nd best player, winning 24.8% of the votes.  Weder Bremen’s Brazilian playmaker, Diego was 3rd with 8.5%.

Not bad for the guy they call Scarface.

This is an amazing achievement for Ribery, considering this is only his first year at Munich.

image via Football-Wallpapers

I was Rollin’ With Rogo this morning (he does the play-by-play, I am the analyst) at the FSC Studio this morning for the 2008 Toulon Tournament Group A match between hosts France and Japan.

While it would end 2-1, it was really a match about converting your chances as Japan had two great scoring opportunities and scored them both, while continuing to show their commitment to full team defending.

For the hosts, it was more of the same wasteful chances in front of the oppositions net that cost them their opening round match against Chile, a game that saw them lose 3-5 but easily could have been a 6-2 scoreline before Faty’s Red Card Ejection.

Today’s chances were mainly missed by their #8, Quercia. And while his name would eventually end up on the scoring summary with an amazing strike after going down 2-nil, it was his 3 glaring misses in on the keeper one v one that would cost France the 3 points and quite possibly qualification for the next round.

Remember, the host nation has won the last 4 straight Toulon titles.

Oh, and Bonnet kept his shorts on this time.