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Franck Ribery biography
Franck "Bilal" Ribéry (born April 7, 1983, in Boulogne-Sur-Mer) is a French football player who currently plays for Olympique Marseille either as an attacking midfielder or a left- or right-sided winger, and recently has been touted by the media as the successor to the French national team talisman Zinédine Zidane, due to his increasingly impressive performances. At the age of two he was thrown through the windshield in a car crash that resulted in scars on the right side of his face and his forehead.
Ribéry is a Muslim, having converted to Islam around the time he married his Muslim fiance Wahiba Belhami who is of Algerian descent (originally from Nedroma, Tlemcen). Ribéry has adopted the Arabic name Bilal. They have one daughter together, Hizya, who was born on July 18, 2005.
Franck Ribery was born and raised in a tough urban district of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the English Channel port that was also the birthplace of Jean-Pierre Papin. He was thrown out of the Lille Olympique Sporting Club academy for not paying attention at school but went on to join his hometown club. Ribery broke into the first team in the 2001-02 season and played only one full senior campaign there before moving to Olympique Alès. He moved on again to Brest a year later. All those three clubs were in the third division but he stepped up when signed by FC Metz in 2004.
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He signed a contract with Turkish club Galatasaray in January 2005, and went on to help them win the 2005 Turkish Cup by scoring a key goal in a 1-0 victory in the semi-final and scoring a goal and assisting another in a 5-1 win in the final against rivals Fenerbahçe. The Galatasaray fans were impressed with the young Frenchman's skills, and quickly gave him the nickname, "FerraRibery". But in June of that year, he abruptly left the Istanbul club and joined Olympique de Marseille, the sixth club of his career. The move was a controversial one, especially in Turkey: Galatasaray claimed Ribéry's contract was still good and that all back wages had been paid to Ribery, but Ribéry claimed the contract was void because, he claimed, that the club's management owed him back wages. The case is under FIFA arbitration as of June 2006. The move to Marseille has since earned him top French player honours for the months of August, October and November 2005.
On June 12, 2006, he was named in the starting lineup of the French team for their opener in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Switzerland. His first international goal proved to be a crucial one, levelling France at 1-1 with Spain in the 41st minute of their knockout round match after calmly rounding the Spanish keeper, Íker Casillas. Though Spain were the favourites, France went on to win that game 3-1 to book a quarter-final slot against Brazil.
Upon facing Brazil on July 1, 2006, Ribéry was substituted in the 75th minute of the 1-0 victory following an impressive performance.He also played in the World Cup final defeat to Italy where he went close with a low shot in the first half of extra-time.
After a much-praised performance throughout the tournament, Ribéry was consequently linked with a possible move to Arsenal F.C., Real Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Internazionale or Olympique Lyonnais. However, he stated in July 2006 that he plans on seeing out the next four years at Marseille. In a confusing turn of events, shortly after making this statement, Ribéry claimed during an interview for french top channel TF1 that he had changed his mind and will eventually quit Olympique de Marseille. Marseille's president has since specifically denied that any offer for Ribéry has been made to Marseille by any club whatsoever. In particular, Ribéry has been strongly linked to Arsenal, with rumours circulating in October 2006 that Marseille have already reached an agreement with the English club for the player. This has been denied by the Marseille sporting director, who however, for the first time confirmed there was interest from Arsenal for Ribéry, but said that OM would not sell their best players because the management intended "to claim a place in the Champions League".
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| Franck Ribery biography |
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