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.

I’m studying for tomorrow’s Toulon Group A match between Japan / France and this is what I come across watching the replay of France’s 3-5 loss to Chile.

Let’s hope Alexandre Bonnet wears his banana hammocks again.

Peter Nowak and Lubos Kubik have assembled their Toulon crew ahead of next Wednesday’s opening match against Turkey on Fox Soccer Channel at 9.30am (EST).  Their match against Ivory Coast (23rd) will be at 12.30pm (EST) and Italy (25th) at 12.00pm (EST), both on Fox Soccer Channel.

Looks like the last of the scragglers have made it and now it’s about getting everyone on the same page and getting over the jet lag.

To stay up on the latest developments from France, check out the team’s YNT-USSoccer Blog.   They’ve got updates on the latest gear, balls and team activities that are updated regularly.

This is going to be a great opportunity for the younger, less visible players to impress the coaching staff before tough decisions are made.  It also might be the last chance for others.

image via YNT-USSoccer.Blogspot.com

English music star - Check.  South of France Nudity - Check.

You must not have any complaints about being seen nude all over the world if you’re out with your homies, topless and jumping off cliffs.

images via DailyMail

With France’s International Friendly against England set and a “B” game scheduled as well, you’d think that head coach Raymond Domenech would call up a player that has scored 16 Serie A goals, right?

Wrong.  Juventus’ David Trezeguet, a man who has represented France 70 times and scored 34 times was again left out of the squad, but this time is just a slap in the face.

See, Domenech has called up 39 players to be involved in both matches and besides the heroic year that Lyon’s Karim Benzema has had with 17 goals in Ligue 1, you’d think that it would be a no brainer that the 30 year old would be an automatic call in on form alone.

Wonder what happened behind closed doors?

image via WorldCupBlog

And so it goes…the Beckham - Capello saga takes another turn. Only a couple years ago Capello famously banished Beckham to training alone after Becks made his announcement to come the LA Galaxy. Then, Beckham gets recalled to the squad and goes on to help Real Madrid win La Liga before both Beckham and Capello bounce out. Now Capello has recalled Beckham once again and made him a part of his provisional squad to take on France. Does this mean Beckham will hit the century mark and get his 100th cao in the friendly with the French? Maybe…but it does look like Becks is back in Capello’s plans, at least for a bit. I for one think it will be great to see Beckham get his 100th cap and maybe contribute to the england squad just a bit longer, and once again defy the naysayers.

I know, it’s old.  But hot damn that was one hell of a free kick.