Albin Ebondo
It is obvious that Premier League became The Promised Land for French players. Football academies that have been built by French FA in the early 90’s became real talent farms. A lot of excellent players earned some experience by playing in French Ligue 1 and after a season or two flew over The English Channel to fight with the best players in the World.
Newcastle, with all their problems and failures in a last couple of years, decided for the same old recipe. Any moment it will be announced that Albin Ebondo signed for The Magpies, while Rod Fanni could be another name on the list of their signings; even at least half of the Premier league clubs are interested in Rennes footballer. Another name that could easily end up at St James Park is Stephan Mbia.
Albin Ebondo is not an unknown name, at least not for the people that love French football. He is 24 years old right full back, but he has a long history with Toulouse. He had an early debut, but very soon after that he became a regular. Soon after his establishment in the starting lineup, Toulouse earned a Champions League qualifications and lost to Liverpool in a final stage. Ebondo started his career at Marseille, but he could not wait enough for the debut. His excellent performance in the last couple of years earned him a call to the national team. We believe that he is ready for the Premier league as he is strong and fast, and as deadball specialist he could add something extra to The Magpies. French national team is expecting a lot from this guy as he was the member of all selections and Newcastle certainly did not gamble by signing him.
Stephan Mbia
Stephan Mbia, Cameroon international, already has more then 100 matches in the French Ligue 1, all of them for Rennes. He is a regular for his country, and is pretty similar type of player with Vieira. Mbia asked to be transferred as he thinks that he is ready for the next step. We have expected that he will leave even during summer as there was a lot of interested for his services (rumour was that Barcelona was one of the teams), but the price was too high as Rennes did want to sell him. In the meantime, Manchester City, Spurs and Everton all sent their offers, but Rennes put the price tag higher after Arsenal joined the race. Italian clubs, Milan and Fiorentina among all, are also interested in Rennes defensive midfielder, so Newcastle won’t have an easy job if they want to strengthen their team. The last rumour is that Hamburg is another team interested in him, especially after they sold De Jong to City, and that Newcastle offer of 10M won’t be enough.
Rod Fanni
Rod Fanni is the last name on the list. Rennes have one of the best academies in the Europe. Excellent performance and results of thir club in France and Europe are therefore not a coincidence. Fanni did not start his career with Rennes, but their scouts had him on the radar for a long time and finally signed him from Nice in 2007 as the replacement for Melchiot. He signed 4 years contract and had been so good that he earned a call to the national squad where he joined his France U19 manager Domenech. After Sagnol, Sagna and Clerc all get injured, it would not be surprise to see him as a regular in French national team at the right flank. His debut against Tounis has been excellent, and after that he earned another call against Uruguy. We doubt that Rennes will sell him during the winter, but it would not be surprise for them to let him go during the summer. For the right price, of course. Newcastle will have to beat the competition of Milan and Juventus, italian giants also interested in Fanni.
Anyway, if Newcastle sign any of those players, they won’t make a mistake as all three of them are excellent players, with a lot of experience both domestic and international.
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