EXTRA: Roster update Ligue 1
By Christophe Horoyan
FIFA Informer provides an in depth look at major transfer in Ligue 1. All the transfers will also be included in the official roster update on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
1st : RC Lens : After a very bad beginning of the season (Lens was 18th/20 at the end of December), with two changes of manager : the first was Guy Roux, then Jean-Pierre Papin, and now Papin is helped by the return of the "Druide" Daniel Leclercq who left Lens 9 years ago, Lens just signed 2 players : Nadir Belhadj (algerian left wing-back from Lyon) and Toifilou Maoulida (striker from Auxerre).
With their new "tandem" of managers, and the reinforcement of Maoulida and Belhadj, Lens won 3 of their 4 games. Especially a game against Lyon in Stade Bollaert won 3-0 by the "Sang et Or".
2nd : Lille OSC : Lille had a really bad beginning too : the team was 17th in the french league at the end of December. And, just like Lens, they just bought 2 players (until now) : Pierre-Alain Frau (striker from Paris SG) and especially Rio Mavuba (french defensive midfielder from Villarreal CF) who made his return in the french Ligue 1 after his departure from Bordeaux last summer.
Since this moment, Lille did'nt lose any game, and they won the game against Le Mans last wednesday with a great Mavuba.
3rd Olympique Lyonnais : Lyon is still the best team of french Ligue 1, but for this season 07/08, Lyon aren't as strong as they were during the 6 last season. Maybe due to the new manager : Alain Perrin.
In order to improve the level of the team, Lyon signed argentinian winger from Cruz Azul : Cesar Delgado. If he's not famous in France at this moment, he will probably be one of the best player in "le championnat" in a few months.
But Lyon lost their brasilian defensive-midfielder Fabio Santos (who came back to Brasil for a loan, due to personnal reasons). So, Marc Crosas, a young and talented spanish defensive-midfielder has been loaned by FC Barcelona until the end of the season.
Jean-Alain Boumsong will probably arrive in Lyon in a few days, while Milan Baros has a lot of chances to be loaned to Portsmouth
During this transfer window, the main teams of Ligue 1 didn't buy a lot of players : Marseille just bought 3 players in order to replace the players left to the african nation cup. Juan Angel Krupoviesa from Boca Juniors is one of them.
Paris Saint-Germain wanted to sign Fred from Lyon, but finally, the player want to stay in Olympique Lyonnais. So, they signed a 23 years old talented french striker (who's currently the best scorer in Ligue 2 with 16 goals) : Guillaume Hoarau from Le Havre. But the player will arrive in Paris at the end of his contract : for the 08/09 season.
Paris is probably the most reduced team : they lost Pierre-Alain Frau (who moved to Lille) and Marcelo Gallardo (DC United). Even if Gallardo didn't play a lot during these last months, they were important players for Paris.
AS Monaco lost 2 of their strikers : the tall Jan Koller who moved to Nuremberg and the young colombian Juan-Pablo Pino who has been loaned to belgian team Charleroi. But ASM signed the argentinian midfielder Sergio Almiron who has been loaned by Juventus.
The most important transfer : Cesar Delgado from Cruz Azul to Lyon. He's not yet adaptated to european football, but when he is he will be amazing!
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