The terrible storms that have flooded the Gulf of St Tropez and killed 22 people are taking a back seat to the real drama in France today. Nicolas Anelka, a star player on the French soccer team, apparently told coach Domenech to go fuck himself during the half time pep talk of the Mexico-France debacle. Apparently, everyone agrees this really is what the coach should go do. He is finally stepping down at the end of the tournament and everyone is wondering how he stayed so long in place. Is he a mason? Does he have files on high FFF officials? Does he sleep with someone?
So that could have been a minor drama. But Anelka was benched for the second half of the game, and is flying back today from South Africa. He might even retire from International soccer - ie. will never play again for the national team. The problem, you see, is that the closed-meeting remark was leaked to the press. So now, there's a mole on the team or on the staff...
The other Nicolas, the president, is not too happy of the performance of the French team at the World Cup. He had counted on the morale uplift by the soccer Bleus to make the French people forget about his very unpopular reform of the pension system. As it stands, the strike on Thursday is very much on. And my friends are participating, I heard at dinner tonight.
I'm off to London tomorrow for a few days. Maybe I'll meet Anelka who's expected back (he plays at Chelsea) on Sunday too...
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