Florent malouda biography of barack

German footballer (born 1976)

Michael Ballack (German pronunciation:[ˈmɪçaːʔeːlˈbalak]; born 26 September 1976) is a German former professional footballer. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was known for his passing range, powerful shot, physical strength and commanding presence in midfield.

Ballack began his career as a youth at enterprise sports community BSG Motor "Fritz Heckert" Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1983. He then joined the youth department of football clubFC Karl-Marx-Stadt. Ballack made his debut for Germany's under-21 side on 26 March 1996. Although the team were relegated in his first season, his performances in the Regionalliga the following season led to a transfer to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1997. He won the Bundesliga in his first season at the club, his first major honour. He became a first team regular in 1998–99 season and also earned his first senior national cap for Germany. He moved to Bayer Leverkusen for €4.1 million in 1999. The 2001–02 season saw him win a slew of runners-up medals: Bayer Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, UEFA Champions League and Germany lost to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup Final.

A €12.9 million move to Bayern Munich led to further honours: the team won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Ballack had become a prolific goalscorer from midfield, scoring 58 goals for Bayern between 2002 and 2006. He joined Premier League club Chelsea in mid-2006 and won English honours in his first season at the club. Injury ruled him out of much of 2007, but he returned the following season to help Chelsea reach their first ever Champions League final. He also went on to win the FA Cup again in 2009 and then once more as part of a league a

CHAMPIOnS LEAGUE •

• THE KEEPER AT WAR THE DEATH OF LA LIGA

KINKLADZE “I delayed an Oasis

Barça in chaos, Real dethroned. But how?!

GREALISH gig by two hours!”

KEEGAN King Kev the

Anfield hero, 50 years on

EnGLAnD’S nEW ICOn

He’s Britain’s first £100m player – now Jack’s ready to conquer the world

ROnALDO! ZOLA! WADDLE! DRIBBLE KInGS RAnKED

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Table of contents :
Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
One. A Beautiful Harvest
Two. Caribbean France
Three. Crossings
Four. Roots
Five. Two Goals
Six. Two Flags
Seven. La France Métissée
Eight. An Unfinished War
Nine. Reconciliation
Ten. Burn
Epilogue. Returns
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Citation preview

S o cc e r E m p i r e

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Ahmanson Foundation Humanities Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation.

Soccer Empire T h e Wo r l d C u p a n d t h e F u t u r e o f F r a n c e

L au r e nt D u b o i s

U n i v er sit y of Ca lifor n i a Pr ess Ber k eley

Los A ngeles

Lon don

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2010 by Laurent Dubois Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dubois, Laurent.   Soccer empire : the World cup and the future of France / Laurent Dubois.    p.   cm.   Includes bibliographical references and index.   isbn 978-0-520-25928-7 (cloth : alk. paper)   1. Soccer—France—History—20th century.  2. Soccer— Social aspects—France.  3. Zidane, Zinédine, 1972–  4. Soccer players—France.  5. World Cup (Soccer) (2006)  6. France— History—20th century.  7. France—Social conditions—20th century.  I. Title.  



















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Association football club in Lille, France

This article is about the men's football club. For the women's football club, see Lille OSC (women).

Football club

Lille Olympique Sporting Club (French pronunciation:[lilɔlɛ̃pikspɔʁtɪŋklœb]), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. Lille have played their home matches since 2012 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy. The 50,186-capacity retractable roof venue is the fourth-largest stadium in France.

Lille were founded as a result of a merger between Olympique Lillois and SC Fives in 1944. Both clubs were founding members of the French Division 1 and Olympique Lillois were the league's inaugural champions. The club's most successful period was the decade from 1946 to 1956, in the post-war period, when the first-team won seven major trophies, including a league/cup double in 1946, and was known as La Machine de Guerre (French for "The War Machine"). Having won another double in 2011, their fourth league title in 2021 as well as their first Trophée des Champions the same year, Lille are the fourth best French club in the 21st century.

In domestic football, the club has won a total of four league titles, six Coupes de France and one Trophée des Champions since its foundation. In European football, Lille have participated in the UEFA Champions League nine times, reaching the knockout phase three times, competed in the UEFA Europa League on eight occasions and got to the UEFA Conference League quarter-finals once. They also won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2004 after finishing as runners-up in 2002. Lille are also one of the rare clubs, still in the first division, to have at least 15 final top-three appearances in the history of the French championship.

Nicknamed Les Dogues (French for "The Mastiffs"), Lille are k