The football transfer window is open and Nantes has been active. The team has added three young attackers with international credentials, perhaps highlighted by the addition of Stephan Babovic from OFK Belgrade. Babovic, 20, is an offensive midfielder and Serbian national team member.
Also added were 20 year old Filip Djordjevic , another Serb, formerly of Red Star of Belgrade, and 21 year old Cameroon international Christian Bekamenga who comes to France from a club in Indonesia but will not join the team until after the African Nations Cup.
The additions are no doubt to bolster the team for the second half of the season but also seem aimed at building a team capable of competing next year in Ligue 1.
An aerial view of Le stade de la Beaujoire - Louis Fonteneau. As Ms. Wireless has pointed out on numerous occasions, it is a real stadium.
League play was suspended for another week as French football shifted its attention to the round of 64 in la Coupe de France. Thirty-two games were played beginning with Ligue 2 Niort upsetting Ligue 1 Lens 1-0 on Friday night and concluding with Sunday night football, Monaco defeating Brest in extra time.
Teenage sensation Youcef Sekour got another start for Nantes and produced the play leading to the game's first goal by Nicolas Goussé as Nantes cruised to a 3-0 victory at Montluçon.
Form was mostly followed as only five games produced victories for the team from the lower classification. One was, of course, Niort over Lens but perhaps of more interest to readers here was the result from Toulouse where Paris FC ousted Ligue 1 Toulouse by a score of 2-1.
Paris Saint Germain also won to advance to the next round, as did current Cup holder Sochaux.
Of the 32 remaining teams, 15 are from Ligue 1 and 9 are from Ligue 2.
From the Nantes website: "L'animatrice télévision Cécile de Ménibus et David Skrela, international de rugby du Stade Français et Champion de France en 2004 et 2007, ont procédé dimanche soir à Paris au tirage au sort des 16èmes de finale de la Coupe de France."
La Fédération Française de Football again rolled out celebrities for the draw for the next round, conducted this evening in Paris.
The celebrities this time were television personality Cécile de Ménibus and French international rugby star David Skrela.
Nantes once again had a fortunate draw. Although les Canaris again drew an away from home venue, the team drew an opponent against which they will fancy their chances. The draw is against fellow Ligue 2 side Sedan. Nantes has already met Sedan twice this season, a 2-1 league victory and also 1-0 in la Coupe de Ligue. Both of those games, however, were at Nantes.
Sedan will also like its chances as they are coming off a 3-2 home victory over Ligue 1 side Caen.
The next round of games will be played on the weekend of February 2 and 3.
Nantes returns to Ligue 2 action on Friday night with a home match against Châteauroux. Châteauroux is currently 14th in the league table. Nantes was victorious in the the first meeting this year between the teams, at Châteauroux, by a score of 2-1.
Nineteenth place Libourne Saint Seurin traveled to Le Havre on Friday. Libourne scored early and held on, nearly pulling the major upset. Le Havre finally managed to draw even in the 81st minute but could not get the winner as the game ended 1-1. Le Havre dropped two important home points and now trails Nantes by those 2 points with the teams even on games played. Nantes plays at suddenly 7th place Clermont on Monday night with a chance to open up some space on Le Havre before next Monday night's game of the season when Le Havre visits La Beaujoire.
French entertainment icon Johnny Hallyday performed at an obviously sold out concert at La Beaujoire and it was a big enough occasion that they still have photos of the concert posted on the FC Nantes website. One of Johnny's signature songs is "Quelque chose de Tennessee". Here he performs it with the other French rocker of approximately the same vintage, Renaud. The performance is from 2003 at Parc des Princes in Paris (home stadium of Paris-Saint Germain). This is also the year of the concert in Nantes so it must have been the same tour. It looks like the same suit on Johnny. Renaud is already featured on this blog for his performance of "Les Bobos".
