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Wilfried Zaha – Player Profile

Of the five players to have represented both Manchester United and Lyon, Wilfried Zaha is the one to have left by far the least impression on both clubs. He’ll go down as little more than a footnote in their history, or at most the answer to an obscure quiz question. Not that he wasn’t a fine player, it’s just that his best work was performed elsewhere, most notably at Crystal Palace where he’s something of a club legend.

Born in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, and christened Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha, he moved with his family to south London at the age of four. One of eight siblings, he joined the academy of local club Crystal Palace and displayed a prodigious talent for football from an early age.

Teenage sensation at Selhurst Park

Having risen through the ranks, his first team debut came as a seventeen-year-old in March 2010. Palace caretaker manager Paul Hart brought Zaha off the bench as a late replacement for Stern John in a 2-1 defeat to Cardiff City in the Championship at Selhurst Park. He didn’t feature again that season, but soon signed his first professional contract and became a regular starter for them during the following campaign.

Wilfried Zaha’s stock continued to rise and he was a key part of their successful promotion challenge in 2012-13 when they finished fifth and won the play-offs to secure a place in the Premier League. Half way through that season, during the January transfer window, Zaha signed for Manchester United for £10 million plus a potential £5 million of add-ons, but was immediately loaned back to Palace for the remainder of the campaign. He had the distinction of becoming Sir Alex Ferguson’s last signing for Manchester United before the legendary manager retired in summer 2013.

By then, Zaha had already been a regular for the England U-19 and U-21 teams for a couple of years and he won his first call-up to the full England national team under Roy Hodgson in November 2012. His debut came in a 4-2 friendly defeat in Sweden, during which Zlatan Ibrahimović scored all four Swedish goals. Zaha was brought off the bench to replace Raheem Sterling for the final five minutes. His only other cap for England came in an August 2013 friendly against Scotland at Wembley. This time he replaced Theo Walcott for the last fifteen minutes of a 2-2 draw.

A frustrating time in Manchester

Zaha’s Manchester United career began with victory in the FA Community Shield under new manager David Moyes. He started on the right side of attack against Wigan Athletic and played the first 61 minutes before being subbed off for Antonio Valencia with United two goals to the good thanks to a pair of Robin Van Persie strikes. It finished 2-0 giving Zaha the first medal of his career.

Moyes handed Zaha a second start in a 4-0 League Cup win over Norwich City at Old Trafford in October 2013 but he had to wait until December to make his Premier League debut as a substitute for Nani in a 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle United. He did also feature briefly in the next game, a 3-0 win against Aston Villa at Villa Park as a late substitute for Wayne Rooney, but that proved to be the sum total of his Manchester United career. Four appearances, two starts and no goals in a total of 167 minutes of playing time.

There had also been three appearances and one goal for the Manchester United U-21 team, but manager David Moyes just didn’t seem to fancy him as a first team player and decided to loan him out to Cardiff City during the January transfer window, a year after he had first put pen to paper on his United deal.

Loan spells at Cardiff and Palace

Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær was the Cardiff City manager at the time and they were struggling against relegation at the bottom end of the Premier League. Zaha made 13 appearances for Cardiff but couldn’t ultimately help them avoid the drop as they finished bottom of the table.

Upon his return to Manchester United, Zaha was once again deemed surplus to requirements by new manager Louis Van Gaal. He rejoined Crystal Palace in August 2014, initially on a season long loan, but the deal was made permanent in February 2015 for a fee of £3 million with the potential for a further £6 million in add-ons.

Peak years back at Palace

Zaha immediately flourished back at Selhurst Park and went on to spend the next nine seasons back at his boyhood club as they consolidated their top-flight status. Playing predominantly on the left side of the front line, he was a persistent goal threat and regular provider of assists for his strike partners. His pace and trickery made him a real handful for fullbacks up and down the country.

Chosen as Crystal Palace Player of the Year for three consecutive seasons from 2015-16 to 2017-18, and Premier League Player of the Month for April 2018, he also helped Palace reach the 2016 FA Cup final at Wembley. There they faced his former employers Manchester United and came close to causing an upset, taking the lead in the 78th minute before eventually succumbing 2-1 after extra time.

In total, Wilfried Zaha racked up 458 appearances for Crystal Palace, scoring 90 goals prior to his departure at the end of the 2022-23 season. He had reportedly been a transfer target for several big clubs over the years, but ultimately allowed his contract to run down so he could leave on a free transfer. By now aged thirty, his peak years were perhaps behind him and he didn’t receive a satisfactory offer from a club in any of Europe’s big five leagues.

Turkish delight

In late July 2023, it was announced that Zaha had signed a contract with Turkish Süper Lig side Galatasaray worth a reported €4.35 million a year in wages. He hit the ground running in Turkey, scoring ten goals in all competitions as Galatasaray romped to the title under manager Okan Buruk, amassing an impressive total of 102 points.

They also collected the Turkish Super Cup title with a 3-0 win against Fenerbahçe, so Zaha was finally able to add to his hitherto sparse personal honours list. He also got his first taste of Champions League football that season and even managed to score at Old Trafford in a 3-2 group stage win against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United.

Textor’s transfer gamble

Despite the apparent success of his season with Galatasaray, Zaha was on the move again the following summer when a surprise loan to Olympique Lyonnais was announced on transfer deadline day. Lyon paid a considerable fee, rumoured to be around €3 million to secure his services for the 2024-25 season.

It was widely seen as something of a vanity transfer that Lyon’s American owner John Textor may have desired in order to put his own stamp on the squad and win over sceptical fans by landing a big name. Textor would have been familiar with Zaha due to his 45% stake in the ownership of Crystal Palace and would have had the necessary contacts to make it happen.

However, the transfer seemed to take manager Pierre Sage by surprise. Lyon were already replete with options in the wide attacking areas but were crying out for reinforcements in central defence or midfield, so the move left the squad feeling a bit unbalanced. Sage didn’t seem to fancy Zaha and wasn’t inclined to disrupt his formation or tactics to accommodate him, so the former Palace man became something of an expensive white elephant on the Lyon bench.

Lesser spotted in Lyon

His Lyon debut came in the UEFA Europa League on the 26th of September 2025 when he came on for Malik Fofana in the 67th minute of a match against Olimpiakos at the Groupama Stadium. Rayan Cherki had just opened the scoring for Lyon and Zaha had an instant impact, laying on an assist for Saïd Benrahma to double the advantage a few minutes later. Lyon ran out 2-0 winners.

Zaha’s first and only start for Lyon came three days later when they travelled to Toulouse in Ligue 1, but this time he was replaced by Fofana in the 53rd minute with the score at 1-1 and Fofana went on to score a late winner. He had to wait until late October for another run out, this time in a Europa League tie against Besiktas. He played the last twenty minutes but couldn’t help overturn a 1-0 deficit. Another short cameo in Ligue 1 followed three days later when he came on for the final few minutes of 2-2 draw against Auxerre, but again couldn’t influence the result.

Moving on to MLS

His final two Lyon appearances came in Ligue 1 victories against Saint-Étienne and Angers in November and December respectively, but they were so fleeting that he was only on the pitch for a total of five minutes across the two games. It was clear that things weren’t working out at Lyon, so they decided to cut their losses and terminate the loan deal when the January transfer window opened.

Zaha’s final Lyon stats of 6 appearances, one start and no goals in a total of 112 minutes of playing time were eerily similar to his output at Manchester United all those years ago. Despite his obvious talent, some managers just seem reluctant to deploy him. Maybe they view him as something of a luxury player.

Galatasaray arranged a further loan, this time to Charlotte FC in America’s MLS where so far he’s been playing ninety minutes every week and has two goals from six appearances. There’s an option to extend the loan until June 2026 so it looks as though he may not be returning to Turkey.

A second chance at international football

Finally, it should be noted that Wilfried Zaha’s international career didn’t end with those two caps that he earned for England in 2012 and 2013. In late 2016, having been repeatedly overlooked for England squads, he decided to switch his international allegiance to the Ivory Coast. He made his debut for The Elephants in a 2-1 friendly win against Sweden in Abu Dhabi in January 2017 under manager Michel Dussuyer.

Zaha has gone on to amass over thirty appearances for the Ivory Coast, scoring four goals, and has appeared at the Africa Cup of Nations finals on three occasions: in 2017 in Gabon, in 2019 in Egypt where they made the quarter-finals, and in 2021 in Cameroon. (The 2021 finals actually took place in January 2022).

Anthony Martial – Player Profile

Les Ulis is a working class new town that was built not far from Paris in the late 1970’s. It has produced such luminaries as Thierry Henry and Patrice Evra, but was starting to look and feel a bit run down by the mid-1990’s. That’s when a couple of Guadeloupean origin welcomed a young boy into the world who they named Anthony Jordan Martial. He grew up in the tower blocks of the Bergères quarter and spent his early years playing football in the streets and local parks with his brothers and friends.

Naturally, Anthony Martial joined the local club, CO Les Ulis, when he turned six and he spent eight years in their ranks before scouts from Olympique Lyonnais convinced him to move south and join their renowned youth setup. By then his older brother Johan was already a professional footballer with SC Bastia in Corsica and the prodigious young Anthony was hotly tipped to follow in his footsteps.

In August 2012, aged just sixteen and nine months, he signed his first professional contract and integrated the first team squad at Lyon, having already been a regular member of the France U-16 and U-17 squads over the previous two seasons. The following month, he scored on his debut for the France U-18 team in a 4-1 friendly win against Austria.

A short-lived career at Lyon

Erstwhile Lyon manager Rémi Garde made Anthony Martial wait until December for his club debut in a Europa League match against Israeli outfit Kiryat Shmona at the Stade de Gerland. Lyon had already wrapped up first place in the group ahead of this final fixture, so Garde rotated the line-up and rested most of the first team regulars. Martial was named among the substitutes and he got his chance to come off the bench after eighty minutes. Wearing the number 50 shirt, he replaced Yassine Benzia, whose goal had made it 2-0 to Lyon. Martial led the line for the final ten minutes but couldn’t add to the score as it finished 2-0 to Les Gones.

On the 3rd of February 2013, Martial was brought back into the matchday squad by Garde for a trip to Ajaccio. Lyon were trailing 2-1 at the Stade Michel-Moretti when Martial was summoned from the bench to replace Rachid Ghezzal with eleven minutes remaining, Unfortunately his Ligue 1 debut didn’t precipitate a comeback. A late Adrian Mutu penalty made it 3-1 to Ajaccio and Martial picked up the first booking of his career in stoppage time.

He wasn’t called upon again until a trip to Montpellier in mid-April where he came on for Steed Malbranque in the 68th minute with the match poised at 1-1. This time he did contribute to a Lyon victory thanks to Clement Grenier’s injury time winner. The following month, Martial made his fourth and final Lyon appearance in the penultimate home game of the season against Paris-Saint Germain. PSG were leading 1-0 courtesy of a Jeremy Menez strike when Martial was brought on to replace Benzia in the 76th minute. Try as he might, he couldn’t help Lyon muster an equaliser and they ended up losing 1-0 to Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG, who were confirmed as Ligue 1 champions that evening.

Surprise Sale to Monaco

Anthony Martial was now a regular goalscorer for the French U-18 team and rated as one of the hottest prospects in French football. Lyon supporters were rightly excited about his potential but in July 2013 the seventeen-year-old was surprisingly sold to AS Monaco for €5 million. Club president Jean-Michel Aulas declared that the club urgently needed the transfer income. Therefore, Martial’s career with Lyon amounted to a total of just 57 minutes across four matches, with no goals or assists.

That summer, Martial represented France in the UEFA U-19 Championships in Lithuania, where they made it all the way to the final. Starting on the left side of attack, alongside his now former Lyon team mate Benzia, they faced Serbia in the title decider, but the French forwards drew a blank in a 1-0 defeat. Despite that disappointment, Martial was included in the “team of the tournament” selected by the UEFA technical team.

During his first season at Monaco, Martial was used sparingly by coach Claudio Ranieri, but he really made an impression in the following campaign under Leonardo Jardim. He made 48 appearances across all competitions in 2014-15 and finished as the club’s top scorer, with 12 goals, ahead of the likes of Bernardo Silva and Dimitar Berbatov.

Multi-Million Pound Move to Manchester

By now Anthony Martial was rated as one of the top young talents in Europe, and Manchester United moved to take him to Old Trafford in September 2015. The fee of £36 million plus a potential £21.6 million of add-ons made him the most expensive teenager in history at the time, and he’s still in the top ten of that list ten years on.

Martial would spend a total of nine years at Manchester United, playing under Louis Van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag. He got off to a quick start, scoring four goals in his first four games and won the Premier League Player of the Month award for September 2015. He also picked up the ‘Golden Boy’ award, which is given to Europe’s best U-21 player as decided by a panel of sports journalists.

The first five seasons of his United career were by far his most productive. He reached double figures for goals in all but one of them, and won the FA Cup, Community Shield, League Cup and UEFA Europa League. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to recapture that form in the later stages of his time at United, when he was increasingly plagued by a series of injuries that restricted his availability. He only managed a total of nineteen goals across those final four seasons.

A loan spell at Sevilla in the second half of the 2021-22 campaign, during which he only managed one goal in twelve appearances, failed to rekindle his career, and United allowed his contract to run down to its expiry in summer 2024. He left United with a very respectable 90 goals in 317 appearances to his name, across all competitions.

After a couple of months without a club, he eventually signed for AEK Athens in the Greek Super League for the 2024-25 season. Still only 29, he’s finally started to rediscover a bit of form and consistency playing on the left side of their attack and has scored nine goals in twenty-two appearances by mid-April as AEK sit third in the championship play-off table at the time of writing.

Thirty French Caps

Having scored four goals in twelve appearances for the France U-21s, Martial’s senior national team career began in September 2015 when coach Didier Deschamps included him in the squad for friendlies against Portugal and Serbia. He made his debut at the Estádio José Alvalade as a substitute for Karim Benzema in a 1-0 win over the Portuguese.

The following summer, he was included in the squad for Euro 2016, hosted in France, and made three appearances in the tournament, including a cameo in the final against Portugal at the Stade de France. He came off the bench to replace Moussa Sissoko for the last ten minutes of extra time, just after Éder had scored what turned out to be the winner for Portugal.

Martial was in and out of the France squad over the following few years, making a total of 30 appearances for Les Bleus, including sixteen starts and scoring two goals. His most recent appearances to date came in the 2021 UEFA Nations League group stage where he scored against Ukraine. He was in the squad for the finals and collected a winners’ medal, despite remaining on the bench during the final against Spain.

Jordan Veretout – Player Profile

French international midfielder Jordan Veretout joined Olympique Lyonnais from Marseille in September 2024. The transfer fee was reported as €4 million plus add-ons. He signed a contract tying him to the club until June 2026 and was handed the number 7 shirt.

Veretout, who was thirty-one years old at the time, has six French caps to his name, which have brought him a UEFA Nations League title and a World Cup runners-up medal. His only club title to date is the 2021-22 UEFA Conference League, which he won with Roma.

Due to his previous association with Lyon’s bitter rivals Saint-Étienne and Marseille, he wasn’t the most popular of arrivals amongst the supporters at the Groupama Stadium and will have to work harder than most to earn their affection. However, his wealth of experience makes him a useful addition to the squad.

Starting out at Nantes

Jordan Veretout was born in Ancenis in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, not far from the regional capital, Nantes. Having begun playing football at a local village club, Veretout found his way into the Nantes academy aged ten and steadily worked his way up through the ranks.

By the time the 2010-11 season came along, the seventeen year old Veretout was beginning to make a name for himself in the Nantes U-19 and reserve teams, having already helped the U-19’s reach the Coupe Gambardella semi-finals the previous season. He also received his first call up to a national team squad, when coach Pierre Mankowski included him in the France U-18 selection in October 2010 for a friendly against Greece. He went on to earn six U-18 caps, scoring two goals that season.

Physically slight and small in stature, Veretout was often at a disadvantage against bigger and more muscular opponents. However, his technical proficiency was apparent from a young age and combined with an impressive range of passing it more than compensated for any physical shortcomings. Never the quickest or the strongest, he soon learned to let his feet do the talking.

As 2010-11 drew to a close, with Nantes struggling in the lower reaches of Ligue 2, coach Philippe Anziani handed Jordan Veretout his senior debut as a late substitute in a 3-1 defeat at Sedan. The following season Veretout was a regular for the Canaries under new coach Landry Chauvin, who had replaced Anziani in the close season. They finished ninth with Veretout finding the net on six occasions.

Youth Euro and World Cup Experience

He was also a mainstay of the France U-19 team that qualified for the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Estonia. They got off to a great start in the finals, beating Serbia and Croatia but then lost 2-1 to England in the final group game. Veretout had scored the equaliser just after the half hour mark, but Harry Kane nicked a winner a few minutes later. That meant that France faced the defending champions, Spain, in the semi-finals. A brace from Lyon’s Samuel Umtiti made it 2-2 and Paul Pogba equalised again in extra time but the Spaniards prevailed in a penalty shoot-out and went on to retain the trophy.

Nantes got their act together under Michel Der Zakarian in the 2012-13 season and finally achieved promotion back to Ligue 1 with a third place finish. Veretout was a linchpin in central midfield throughout the campaign and was rewarded with a place in Mankowski’s France squad for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey at the end of the season.

World Champion

No matter what else Jordan Veretout goes on to achieve in football, that U-20 World Cup tournament will undoubtedly remain one of the highlights of his career. He was virtually ever-present as France squeezed through a tough group and then defeated the hosts in the last sixteen with Veretout scoring the fourth French goal in a 4-1 win. They then swept past Uzbekistan and Ghana to set up a final with Uruguay.

The Ali Sami Yen Spor Kompleksi, home of Galatasaray in Istanbul, was the venue for the title decider and Veretout was aligned alongside Geoffrey Kondogbia in central midfield. The two teams cancelled each other out and it finished goalless after extra time. A penalty shoot-out ensued and Veretout converted the second French spot kick himself whilst Alphonse Areola made a couple of saves to clinch the trophy for Les Bleus.

A big money move abroad

Back at Nantes, Der Zakarian guided them to respectable 13th and 14th place finishes in their first two seasons back in the top flight. Veretout really caught the eye in the second of those campaigns, scoring an impressive seven goals from midfield. That form prompted manager Tim Sherwood to pay around €10 million to take him to Aston Villa in July 2015.

Veretout was one of a plethora of new faces at Villa Park that summer as Sherwood revamped the squad. In fact, he was one of three Jordans who arrived from Ligue 1, alongside his compatriot Jordan Amavi from Nice and Jordan Ayew from Lorient. However, the 2015-16 season proved to be an unmitigated disaster for Villa and Sherwood was dismissed in late October with the club sitting at the bottom of the table.

Former Lyon manager Rémi Garde was brought in to try and turn things around but he had little impact and also parted company with the club prior to the end of the season, which ended with Villa finishing rock bottom and getting relegated. Veretout made 29 appearances across all competitions, and was the club’s top assist provider with five, but only tasted victory on five occasions.

Back to France on loan

Veretout was loaned to Saint-Étienne for the following season and prospered back in his homeland under coach Christophe Galtier. He was a regular in central midfield and scored three times in Ligue 1 as Les Verts finished in eighth place. They also enjoyed a run in the UEFA Europa League that ended with a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Manchester United in February.

Saint-Étienne did not have an option to buy Jordan Veretout in their loan agreement with Aston Villa, and he was made available for transfer by the Villans upon his return there in summer 2017. Fiorentina manager Stefano Pioli decided to stump up a €7 million transfer fee to take Veretout to Italy, which would become his home for the next five years.

Serie A stalwart

Veretout enjoyed a fine first season in Florence, making 38 appearances and scoring ten goals in all competitions, which made him the club’s second top scorer behind Giovanni Simeone. His new-found scoring touch, which included a hat-trick against Lazio, helped the Viola to an eighth place finish in Serie A, just outside the European spots. However, the season was marred by tragedy when club captain Davide Astori passed away in his sleep ahead of a match at Udinese in March 2018.

The 2018-19 campaign was much tougher for Fiorentina. They slumped to a 16th place finish and suffered the disappointment of a semi-final exit in the Coppa Italia. Veretout found the net on five occasions in 37 appearances in central midfield and was impressive enough for newly appointed AS Roma manager Paulo Fonseca to to earmark him as one of his first signings upon taking the helm of ‘I Giallorossi‘ in June 2019.

All roads lead to Rome

Veretout initially moved to Roma on loan, but with an obligation to buy, and the move was made permanent the following summer for a fee of €17.5 million. He immediately became a key player for Roma, racking up 43 appearances during that first season in the capital, which made him the club’s most used player alongside Bosnian striker Edin Džeko, who also featured on 43 occasions. Veretout found the net seven times for his new club during that Covid-19 disrupted season as they eventually finished fifth in Serie A.

The 2020-21 season under coach Paulo Fonseca probably goes down as one of the best of Jordan Veretout’s career. Now aged 28, he’s at the peak of his powers, and scores a career high eleven goals in all competitions. His ten strikes in Serie A make him the first French midfielder since Michel Platini to reach double figures in that competition in a single season. Roma finish seventh in Serie A and reach the UEFA Europa League semi-finals where Manchester United once again bring Veretout’s European run to an end, this time with an 8-5 aggregate victory.

France debut and a first trophy

To cap it all off, Veretout received his first call-up to the full French national team squad in August 2021 for a round of World Cup qualifying matches. Manager Didier Deschamps handed him his debut in a 1-1 draw versus Bosnia at the Stade de France in Paris. Veretout started as the anchor in a three-man midfield alongside Paul Pogba and Thomas Lemar. His Roma club mate Džeko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 36th minute, but Griezmann equalised three minutes later. He earned a second cap a few days later as a late substitute in a 1-1 draw against Ukraine.

A month later, Veretout was in the France squad again for the UEFA Nations League finals in Italy. Although he only came on for the last minute of the wins against Belgium and then Spain in the final, it was enough to earn him the first major trophy of his career.

European glory

José Mourinho replaced Paulo Fonseca as Roma manager for the 2021-22 season and continued to guide the club on an upwards trajectory. The squad was bolstered by a host of signings during the summer, including the arrival of future Lyon full-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles on loan from Arsenal. Despite the increased competition for places, Veretout still featured regularly and was the club’s top assist provider as they improved by one position to finish 6th in Serie A.

However, it was in Europe that they really made their mark, with a run to the final of the UEFA Europa Conference League where they met Feyenoord at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania. Veretout was named among the substitutes for the final, but he came off the bench in the 67th minute to replace Nicolò Zaniolo. Zaniolo had scored what proved to be the only goal of the game in the first half and Roma ran out 1-0 winners to lift the trophy, giving Veretout his first major club honour.

Nevertheless, Mourinho deemed Veretout to be surplus to requirements in the close season and he was sold to Marseille for €12.45 million. Newly installed Marseille manager Igor Tudor built his midfield around Veretout, who was the only player to feature in every match the club played during the 2022-23 campaign. He contributed five goals and five assists as they finished third in Ligue 1 to qualify for the UEFA Champions League again, having failed to get out of the group stage this time around.

World Cup Finals

Veretout had been on the fringes of the France squad since their UEFA Nations League win in 2021, so he was hopeful rather than expectant of a call up to their squad for the 2022 World Cup, which interrupted the 2022-23 season. Happily, he did make the cut for the group of 25 players that Didier Deschamps took on the plane to Qatar. Playing time was at a premium once he got there, with a 63 minute cameo in the final group game, a 1-0 defeat to Tunisia, his only contribution on the pitch. Nonetheless, he now has a World Cup Runners Up medal to his name following France’s defeat to Argentina on penalties in the final.

Last season was a somewhat turbulent campaign for Marseille as they churned through four managers en route to a disappointing eighth place finish in Ligue 1 and were eliminated from the Coupe de France early on. They crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying round and dropped into the Europa League, but did at least progress deep into that competition. They reached the semi-finals where they lost 4-1 on aggregate to the eventual winners Atalanta. Veretout again racked up five goals and five assists from his 46 appearances in central midfield.

Olympique transfer

Roberto De Zerbi arrived as the new Marseille manager in June and he didn’t fancy Veretout, who was transfer listed and left out of the squad. He failed to secure a move away from Marseille before the end of the transfer window, but each club in France is allowed one ‘joker’ transfer outside of the transfer window per season, which is how Lyon were allowed to purchase him in September.

Jordan Veretout made a solid but unspectacular start to life in Lyon under Pierre Sage. He was generally deployed as part of a midfield three alongside Nemanja Matic and Corentin Tolisso and he scored his first goal in Lyon colours in the 4-1 win against Nice at the start of December. However, he has fallen out of favour since his former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca arrived at the end of January with the American Tanner Tessmann taking his spot in the starting line-up. Whether on the pitch or on the bench, he brings a lot of valuable experience to the club and has increased the strength in depth of the squad.

Warmed Omari – Player Profile

Warmed Omari is a centre-back who joined Olympique Lyonnais on a season-long loan from Rennes in August 2024. He was brought in on the final day of the transfer window to provide defensive cover in the wake of the departures of Mamadou Sarr, Sinaly Diomandé, Adryelson and Dejan Lovren, which left the squad depleted in that department.

As expected, Omari’s opportunities for first team action at Lyon have been limited, with Moussa Niakhaté, Duje Ćaleta-Car and Clinton Mata preferred to him for a starting role. He had to wait until the trip to Le Havre in October to make his debut, and that was only as an 83rd minute substitute for Corentin Tolisso. At the time of writing, those remain his only Ligue 1 minutes for Lyon.

Omari’s first starts for Lyon came in the UEFA Europa League in November when he played the full ninety minutes in both the away draw at Hoffenheim and the 4-1 win at Qarabag. His only other appearance to date came in the ignominious Coupe de France exit to Bourgoin-Jallieu in January when he played the full ninety plus extra time. Other than that, he has remained on the bench ready to deputise should the first choice defenders become unavailable.

From Mayotte to Brittany via Dijon

Omari was born in the commune of Bandraboua, on the northern coast of the island of Mayotte, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean. It is situated approximately half way between Madagascar and the Mozambique coast, at the south-eastern end of the Comoros Islands archipelago. He is eligible to represent the Comoros via his parents, as well as France in international football and has recently pledged his future to the Comoros, having previously played at U-21 level for Les Bleus.

Having moved to the French mainland in his early years, Omari began playing youth football for a club in Les Grésilles, a suburb of Dijon. At around the age of ten, he moved once more, this time to Brittany in the west of France. There he joined the junior ranks of local club US Saint Méen-Saint Onen and moved on a couple of years later to TA Rennes, a multi-sports club in the nearby Breton capital.

Through the ranks at Rennes

By now he was on the radar of scouts from local giants Stade Rennais and they duly signed him up to their academy in 2014. He progressed steadily through the age groups and made his debut for the Rennes B team playing in the National 3 Brittany Division (at the fifth tier of the French football pyramid) in October 2018. He made only two appearances for the B team that season, but both resulted in clean sheets and he also turned out for the U-19 team a couple of times in the post-season championship play-offs as they lifted the national U-19 title with a 4-0 thumping of Montpellier in the final.

That triumph qualified Rennes for the 2019-20 UEFA Youth League and Warmed Omari was by now an integral part of their defence as they eliminated Serbian outfit FK Brodarac in the first round. He even captained the team in the second round second leg against Maccabi Petah Tikva as Rennes eased past the Israelis with a clean sheet 3-0 on aggregate. They beat Club Brugge on penalties in the next round, but eventually fell to Internazionale in the last sixteen.

Omari had also become a regular in the Rennes B team for the 2019-20 season and they were handily placed at 5th in the National 3 Brittany table when the season was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like footballers everywhere, he was forced into several months of inactivity. However, he had the consolation of signing his first professional contract with Rennes in June 2020.

Breakthrough season

Despite his new ‘pro’ status, Omari had to bide his time for first team opportunities and the 2020-21 season afforded him a meagre three appearances in the matchday squad with no playing time, and just three games for the B team. 2021-22 was destined to be his breakthrough season as, at twenty-one years old, he finally made the step up to the Rennes senior team.

Former Lyon manager Bruno Génésio was the coach who handed Warmed Omari his opportunity at Rennes, and boy did he take it! He made his debut as a late substitute in a 1-1 draw at Brest in the second Ligue 1 game of the season and his first start came on matchday five in a 0-2 defeat to Reims. From there on he was virtually ever present in the starting eleven, helping Rennes to a fourth placed finish in Ligue 1. He also made his European debut, featuring regularly in a UEFA Conference League campaign the ended with defeat to Leicester City at the last sixteen stage.

During the course of that 2021-22 season, Omari notched up his first ever goal in professional football. His 21st minute strike in the Coupe de France fifth round Breton derby clash against Lorient proved to the the matchwinner. Another landmark moment was his first call-up to the France U-21 squad, which came in March 2022. He made his debut in a European U-21 Championship qualifier against the Faroe Islands at the Stade de l’Épopée in Calais, helping to keep a clean sheet in a 2-0 victory. His second cap came four days later in a 5-0 friendly win against Northern Ireland at the same venue.

Injury setback and comeback

Unfortunately for Warmed Omari, he missed the first half of the 2022-23 campaign with a sports hernia injury. His season didn’t really get going until February, but he regained his starting place in the Rennes first team for the remainder of the season and helped them to a fifth placed finish in Ligue 1, making sixteen appearances plus another couple in the Europa League.

Last season (2023-24) was an improvement on a personal level as he put his injury problems behind him and managed twenty-five Ligue 1 appearances, although Rennes finished a disappointing 10th. He picked up a couple of one-match suspensions during the course of the season, the first for a red card and the second for accumulated yellow cards. Coincidentally, those bans kept him out of both fixtures against Lyon, so his future employers didn’t get a chance to look at him in the flesh.

Omari also featured regularly in Rennes’ Europa League campaign that was brought to a halt by AC Milan in the first knockout round and he was ever-present in their run to the Coupe de France semi-finals, where they were narrowly beaten by PSG. That takes us up to the summer of 2024 and his loan move to Lyon, who also secured the option to purchase him for €10 million should they wish to do so in summer 2025.

At the moment, it seems doubtful that Lyon will choose to trigger that option given their parlous financial state and the lack of first team opportunities for Omari thus far, so he may find himself back at Rennes in June. One thing that has turned out well for him this season is his international career. He pledged his allegiance to the Comoros and played in every match of their Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign. They went through Group A unbeaten to top the group and earn a place in the finals for only the second time in their history, so he’ll be looking forward to lining up for ‘Les Coelacantes‘ in Morocco next December.

Thiago Almada – Player Profile

Argentina international Thiago Almada is the latest player to arrive at Olympique Lyonnais via their association with Brazilian club Botafogo under the shared ownership of John Textor’s Eagle Football Holdings. The twenty-three year old attacking midfielder or winger moved to Lyon during the January 2025 transfer window. He initially joined on loan as Lyon were barred from making new signings by the French financial watchdog, the DNCG, at the time.

Despite his youth, Almada has already accrued a wealth of experience and an impressive trophy haul. In 2024 he helped Botafogo win both the Brazilian championship and the Copa Libertadores, but his career highlight is undoubtedly the 2022 World Cup win with Argentina in Qatar. He is therefore the third World Cup winner in the current Lyon squad, alongside his compatriot Nicolás Tagliafico and Frenchman Corentin Tolisso.

Breakthrough at Vélez

Almada was born in Ciudadela, a suburb of Buenos Aires, in April 2001. He grew up in the nearby Fuerte Apache neighbourhood, a poor, working class, inner city district that has also produced Argentina internationals such as Carlos Tevez and Fernando Gago. Almada showed an aptitude for football at a young age and soon joined local club Vélez Sarsfield, where he would spend the best part of twelve years honing his skills in the youth academy before making his first team debut aged seventeen.

Former Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze was the Vélez manager who handed Almada his first taste of senior football. He brought him off the bench to replace Lucas Robertone just after half time in a Superliga Argentina match against CA Aldosivi at the Estadio José Amalfitani. Almada made an immediate impact, helping to turn a goalless stalemate into a 2-0 win, not least by taking the free-kick that provided the assist for the second goal.

Thiago Almada was a fixture in the Vélez squad for the remainder of the season. He got his first start and his first goals in a 3-2 defeat at Defensa in November 2018 and went on to amass twenty-two appearances and four goals across all competitions in 2018-19 as Vélez finished sixth in the league. He continued his progression during the 2019-20 season when he made forty-one appearances and scored eleven goals as Vélez managed a third place finish in the Superliga Argentina and got to the semi-finals of the Copa Sudamericana.

Post-pandemic progression

However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought his development to an abrupt halt when football in Argentina was suspended for seven months between March and October 2020. The enforced hiatus played havoc with the competition schedules and league football didn’t resume until July 2021 when the newly formed Liga Profesional de Fútbol launched the new Primera División championship. Almada was now a key player and helped Vélez to a fifth place finish.

In February 2022, by now aged twenty, Almada moved away from Argentina and signed for Atlanta United for $16 million, which represented a record transfer fee for an MLS club. Despite the team’s struggles, Almada enjoyed a successful two and a half years in America on a personal level. He was named MLS Newcomer of the Year in 2022 and nominated for the MLS All-Star game in 2023, when he also picked up the MLS Young Player of the Year award.

A big bucks move to Brazil

Midway through the 2024 MLS season, Botafogo came in with a bid of $21 million for Thiago Almada, which broke both the MLS and Brazilian league transfer records and took him back to South America. He went straight into the first team and made his debut in a Copa do Brasil defeat away at Bahia in August 2024.

His Serie A debut came four days later away at Juventude and, following that 3-2 defeat, he didn’t miss a match for the remainder of the season as Botafogo embarked on a sixteen game unbeaten run to clinch their first league title since 1995, finishing six points clear of second placed Palmeiras.

Palmeiras were also the opposition in the Copa Libertadores, which was at the last sixteen stage when Almada arrived in Rio. He helped Botafogo overcome their domestic rivals 4-3 on aggregate to set up another all-Brazilian clash against São Paulo in the quarter-finals. It was another close fought affair, with the first leg in Rio finishing goalless. Almada gave Botafogo an early lead in the second leg only to see it cancelled out late on. A penalty shoot out ensued, with Almada converting his spot kick to help his team prevail 5-4.

The semi-final against Peñarol of Uruguay was a much more straightforward affair, as Botafogo secured a 5-0 lead at home in the first leg to effectively end the tie. Almada scored their only goal of the second leg in Montevideo, which finished 3-1 to the hosts.

Continental Glory

The final was yet another all-Brazilian encounter, this time against Clube Atlético Mineiro at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires. It got off to a disastrous start for Fogo when they were reduced to ten men in only the second minute due to a red card for midfielder Gregore. However, they rallied and managed to take a 2-0 lead into the interval. Atlético struck back at the start of the second period, but couldn’t muster an equaliser and the result was sealed when Júnior Santos made it 3-1 to Botafogo deep into injury time giving them a first ever Copa Libertadores title.

Playing alongside Thiago Almada that day were former Lyon defenders Adryelson and Marçal as well as former Manchester United left-back Alex Telles. All will go down in Botafogo folklore as being among the players who helped to finally end their quest for the much coveted continental title. However, it was to be one of Almada’s final appearances for the club, as he was loaned to Lyon just a few weeks later.

First steps with La Albiceleste

Those two trophies earned with Botafogo undoubtedly represent the highlights of his club career to date, but little can compare with the experience of lifting the World Cup with Argentina in 2022. Almada’s story with his national selection began back in March 2018 when he first appeared as a late substitute for the U-20 team in a friendly against England U-18 at the Joie Stadium (the Manchester City academy ground) in Manchester.

A few more appearances for the U-20s followed that year, which led up to his inclusion in the squad for the U-20 South American Championship in January and February 2019. Held in Chile, the tournament consisted of two group stages with the winners of the second stage taking the title. Almada made six appearances and scored one goal, against eventual winners Ecuador, as Argentina took the runners-up medals.

By the summer of 2021, Almada had progressed to the Argentina U-23 team and was part of the squad that went to the delayed 2020 Olympic Games in Japan in July 2021. However, he didn’t get much playing time as Argentina crashed out in the group stage. A gap of more than a year followed, during which Almada didn’t see any international action, but it was ended by a surprise call-up to the full national squad for a World Cup warm up match in September 2022.

On top of the world

His Argentina debut came as a 54th minute substitute for Papu Gómez in a 3-0 victory over Honduras at the Hard Rock Stadium in Florida, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team. However, Thiago Almada failed to make the cut when coach Lionel Scaloni announced his squad for the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar on the 11th of November 2022.

Nevertheless, fate was on Almada’s side as Fiorentina winger Nicolás González was forced to withdraw from the squad due to a muscular injury and then Internazionale forward Joaquín Correa suffered a similar fate. Their misfortune opened up a door to Atlético Madrid’s Ángel Correa and, just four days before Argentina’s opening game, Almada was also added to the squad. At just twenty-one years old, he became the youngest player in their finals squad.

Playing time was very much at a premium for Almada in Qatar, but he was afforded a run out in the final few minutes of the last group game against Poland when he replaced Alexis Mac Allister with Argentina two goals to the good and heading into the knockout stages. Almada remained firmly on the bench as Argentina progressed through the rest of the tournament to lift the trophy but he’ll go down in history as the first MLS based player to win the World Cup.

Olympian twice over

Since then, Almada has made a further four appearances for the national team, and scored his first senior international goal in a friendly against Panama at the Estadio Monumental in March 2023. His first competitive international goal also came at the Monumental in a 6-0 demolition of Bolivia in World Cup qualification in October 2024.

In between those two strikes, Thiago Almada had been busy captaining the U-23 team and scoring regularly for them in the build up to the 2024 Olympic Games in France. A key part of Javier Mascherano’s squad, he found the net twice in his second Olympic tournament, against Iraq and Ukraine, as Argentina progressed to the quarter-finals. There they came up against the hosts in Bordeaux. Playing as a number ten, Almada was unable to unlock a tight French defence and they went down 1-0 to Thierry Henry’s selection, which was captained by Alexandre Lacazette.

Rémy Descamps – Player Profile

Rémy Descamps is a French goalkeeper who joined Lyon in August 2024 to act as a backup for Lucas Perri. It’s a role to which the twenty-eight year old has become accustomed in recent years, having spent the majority of the previous three seasons sitting on the bench for Nantes.

Perri has been ever present so far this season in the league, so opportunities have been few and far between for Descamps. He had to wait until November for his first taste of action, when he was thrown into a reserve team match at Chambéry and kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win.

His first team debut came five days later away at Hoffenheim in the UEFA Europa League when Perri was rested. Descamps was beaten twice from close range but also made some fine saves in a 2-2 draw. His only other appearance to date came in the Coupe de France Fifth Round when Perri was again rested for the 2-1 win against Entente Feignies Aulnoye.

A student of the game

Rémy Descamps was born in the suburbs of Lille in the far north of France and was on the books of the Lille OSC academy until his early teens. At that point, his family decided that the best way to build on his early promise as a goalkeeper was to send him to the renowned Académie des Gardiens de Buts (Academy of Goalkeepers) in Bagnères-de-Luchon for a year. So the young Descamps traveled the length of France to study the art of goalkeeping in the picturesque surroundings of the Pyrenees.

Upon graduating a year later, he moved to Clermont-Ferrand in the central Auvergne region to join the academy of local club Clermont Foot. After a couple of years representing their youth teams, Descamps was picked up by Qatari-owned sports washing project Paris Saint-Germain. He experienced success with the PSG U-19 team, winning the national U-19 championship in 2016 and reaching the UEFA Youth League final in the same season, where they lost 2-1 to Chelsea.

Gaining experience in the lower leagues

Rémy Descamps also began to feature in the PSG reserve team playing in the fourth tier CFA Groupe A in the 2015-16 season and soon became their first choice between the sticks. He represented them for two and a half seasons, even making a handful of appearances on the first team bench when a senior goalkeeper was unavailable. By January 2018 the time was ripe for him to gain some experience at a higher level, so he was loaned out to struggling Ligue 2 outfit Tours for the second half of the season.

Descamps went straight into the first team at Tours and was ever present until the end of the campaign, but was unable save them from relegation as they remained firmly rooted to the bottom of the table throughout his sojourn at the club. The following season he was loaned out again by PSG, this time back to Clermont Foot. Installed as their first choice goalkeeper, he helped them to a respectable tenth place finish in Ligue 2 and also earned his first and only call-up to the France U-21 squad.

Warming benches in Belgium

The following summer, in August 2019, Descamps ended his six-year relationship with PSG by signing for Belgian Jupiler Pro League club Charleroi for a fee of €400,000. However, his route to the first team there was blocked by his experienced compatriot Nicolas Penneteau and Descamps found himself confined to the bench.

He was still awaiting his debut when everyone found themselves confined to their homes by the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the Belgian football season was abandoned. It wasn’t until December 2020, some sixteen months after joining, that Rémy Descamps finally made his Charleroi debut. In January 2021, with Penneteau suspended following a red card, Descamps grabbed his chance and held on to the number one spot for the remainder of the season.

Cup heroics but final frustration

In summer 2021 he was on the move again. This time the destination was Nantes where manager Antoine Kombouaré signed him as back-up for first choice goalkeeper and club captain Alban Lafont. Although Descamps didn’t make a single Ligue 1 appearance in the 2021-22 season, he was installed as the club’s ‘cup goalkeeper’ and he played in every round as The Canaries made it to the final.

Descamps was instrumental in that run, keeping clean sheets in the first four rounds and saving penalties in shoot-outs against both Sochaux and later AS Monaco in the semi-final. However, Lafont was preferred for the final itself so Descamps had to watch the 1-0 victory over OCG Nice from the bench. The Coupe de France winner’s medal will have provided him with some consolation and it remains the only major honour of his career to date.

The 2022-23 season was a remarkably similar story. Descamps made just a single appearance in Ligue 1, but was again the cup goalkeeper and again helped them through a couple of penalty shoot-outs on the way to the final. He notably kept a clean sheet against Lyon in a 1-0 semi-final victory, but he was again overlooked for the final itself and had to watch from the sidelines as Nantes suffered a bruising 5-1 reversal to Toulouse.

Opportunities were not much more forthcoming the following season. Descamps played a handful of Ligue 1 matches while Lafont was injured, but never managed to retain his place in the team, so he decided to walk away at the end of the campaign when his contract expired, which is when Lyon picked him up as a free agent.

Tanner Tessmann – Player Profile

Tanner Tessmann is a tall and imposing defensive midfielder who made a name for himself with Venezia in Italy before Olympique Lyonnais signed him for €6 million in August 2024. He is a USA international, with six caps to his name, at the time of writing, having made his debut in 2021.

Tessmann, or Francis Tanner James Tessmann to give him his full name, was born in Birmingham, Alabama, in September 2001. In his youth, he spent time at the Birmingham United Soccer Association (BUSA) academy and in 2016 he moved west to join the academy of MLS side FC Dallas in Texas.

For the 2019 season, the seventeen year old Tessmann was given the chance to cut his teeth in senior soccer at North Texas SC. They were newly formed as the reserve team of FC Dallas and they entered the USL League One, which was the newly created third tier of the United Soccer League (USL).

North Texas SC took the league by storm, topping the regular season table by ten points, before winning the four team play-offs to take the championship title with a 1-0 victory over Greenville Triumph SC in the final. Tessmann impressed in central midfield and even made the Team of the Week in match-day 7 when he scored the first goal of his career. His strike, in a 4-1 home win against Orlando City B, was voted Goal of the Week.

Tessmann isn’t the only member of that youthful North Texas SC team to now be plying his trade at a major European club. Striker Ricardo Pepi bagged nine goals that season and is now banging them in for PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Soccer or football?

Following his successful season in the USL League One, Tessmann seemed destined to progress through the ranks in the FC Dallas setup. However, he was still toying with the idea of going down the college route that is so well trodden for aspiring young athletes in the USA. Tessmann had secured a soccer scholarship to Clemson University in South Carolina with a prospective start date of June 2020 and now had a decision to make.

His godfather, Dabo Swinney, is the renowned head coach of the Clemson Tigers, the college football (gridiron) team of Clemson University and a two-time winner of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Tessmann was also a talented American football player and would play as a kicker for the Tigers as well as representing the college soccer team, should he choose that path. He even had his player bio page on the university website replete with a photo of him sporting the orange Tigers jersey, shoulder pads and all.

However, in February 2020, the lure of a professional soccer contract proved too much for Tessmann to resist and he signed terms with FC Dallas on a three year deal. He started the first two games of the 2020 MLS season alongside Thiago Santos in central midfield before Covid-19 brought his nascent professional career to an abrupt halt.

Starring in Dallas

It was more than five months until FC Dallas took to the field again, and over six months had passed by the time Tessmann got his next start, a 2-1 Texas derby win against Houston Dynamo. Covid continued to wreak havoc with the sporting calendar and the full schedule of regular season fixtures wasn’t fully completed, but Tessmann did feature in every FC Dallas match from there on.

They reached the post season MLS Cup play-offs where they faced Portland Timbers in the Round of 16. A late Ricardo Pepi equaliser made it 1-1 and took the tie to extra time and eventually penalties. Tessmann stepped up to take FC Dallas’ eighth penalty and coolly converted the kick, helping his side to a 9-8 victory, which he later described as “one of the best nights of my life“. Unfortunately the adventure ended in the quarter-finals when they lost 1-0 to Seattle Sounders.

Tanner Tessmann was a regular stater for FC Dallas when the 2021 MLS campaign got underway, but the season was only a couple of months old when he got the chance to cross the Atlantic and try his luck in Europe. That opportunity came in the form of a bid from Venezia in Italy and they ultimately agreed to pay a transfer fee of €3.64m to secure his services.

A slow start in La Serenissima

Newly promoted to Serie A, the Venice based club were on a major recruitment drive to prepare for the challenge of top flight football and Tessmann was one of a dozen permanent and loan signings that they made that summer. He went straight into the squad and made his debut as a substitute in the opening game of the season, a 2-0 defeat at Napoli.

Tanner Tessmann was almost ever-present in the match-day squad thereafter, although his actual playing time was somewhat limited. He made only six starts in Serie A, playing the full ninety minutes just twice, but appeared a further fourteen times off the bench. The one time he wasn’t part of the squad was due to suspension after he picked up the first red card of his career in a defeat to Lazio in December 2021.

Venezia found the going tough in Serie A and were embroiled in a season long struggle against relegation, which was ultimately unsuccessful. They finished bottom of the table and made an immediate return to Serie B. Their Coppa Italia campaign wasn’t much more successful. They did eliminate Fabio Grosso’s Frosinone side on penalties in the First Round, despite Tessmann having his spot kick saved, but they went out to Atalanta in the Round of 16.

Bouncing Back

Venezia suffered from a severe relegation hangover and got off to a dreadful start to life back in Serie B. They were still down in nineteenth place at the end of January before an upturn in form saw them rise steadily to eighth by the end of the season. That improvement coincided with Tessmann nailing down a starting spot in central midfield and he didn’t miss a single minute of action from the start of March until the final game of the season. He also scored the first three goals of his European adventure.

That late charge up the table secured a promotion play-off spot for Venezia, but they lost out to Cagliari at the first hurdle. That setback, however, was soon a distant memory as the Neroverdi started the 2023-24 season in fine fettle with Tanner Tessmann now a totemic talisman at the heart of the team. He missed only one game and contributed six goals as Venezia finished fourth but this time successfully negotiated the play-offs to gain promotion back to Serie A.

Ligue 1 beckons

That summer Venezia looked to cash in on their rising star and Tessmann was strongly linked with a move to Internazionale before Lyon moved to snap him up, making him the first American to sign for the Olympique Lyonnais men’s team. At 6 ft 2″ and nicknamed ‘Tanner the Tank’ he promises to be a useful additional to the Lyon midfield options.

Thus far he has been used sparingly by coach Pierre Sage, making just three starts and seven substitute appearances in the first half of the Ligue 1 season, with a further four starts in cup competitions. Opportunities may be more forthcoming after the January transfer window if the Lyon squad is thinned out by player departures.

Representing the Stars and Stripes

As of January 2025, Tanner Tessmann has six international caps to his name. His first involvement with the USA national team setup came in September 2019 when he earned a call-up to the U-20 squad from coach Tab Ramos whilst playing for North Texas SC. Just sixteen months later, in January 2021, having impressed for FC Dallas in MLS, he was selected for the full USMNT by coach Gregg Berhalter.

Tessmann’s debut came as a 78th minute substitute in a 7-0 friendly win over Trinidad & Tobago in Orlando. He didn’t get any further playing time until September 2023 and another substitute appearance in a 3-0 friendly win against Uzbekistan in St Louis. During the intervening period he had been racking up appearances for the USA U-23 team and he was subsequently part of the squad that went to the Olympic Games in France in 2024.

In fact, Tanner Tessmann was given the honour of wearing the captain’s armband during that tournament and he led his country into the knockout phase despite a 3-0 defeat to the hosts in their opening match. They recovered to comfortably beat New Zealand and Guinea in Group A before being outclassed by Morocco in the quarter-finals.

Following his move to Lyon, Tessmann has been back in the senior USA squad and he made his first starts in the CONCACAF Nations League quarter-finals tie against Jamaica in November 2024, in which the USA won both legs to progress to the semi. He looks set to be a mainstay of the USMNT for years to come.

Abner Vinícius – Player Profile

Abner Vinícius is a Brazilian left-back who joined Olympique Lyonnais from Real Betis in July 2024. He signed on a five year contract and cost the French club €8 million, with Betis entitled to twenty per cent of the fee if Lyon ever sell him on.

To give him his full name, Abner Vinícius da Silva Santos, was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in the Rhône department to hook up with his new team mates. He was handed the number sixteen shirt in Pierre Sage’s Lyon squad and he simply carries the moniker ‘Abner’ on his back, rather than his full appellation.

Abner was signed to offer cover for Nicolás Tagliafico in the left-back role at Lyon and ultimately to compete with the Argentinian international for a place in the first team. As it transpired, Tagliafico was out injured for the first few games of the season, so Abner got his chance on the opening weekend of the 2024-25 Ligue 1 campaign.

In at the deep end

The young Brazilian looked bright going forwards against Rennes, with some promising attacking contributions down the left flank, but endured a torrid time at the other end of the field where the Lyon defence shipped three goals without reply against the Bretons. Things were equally difficult against Monaco the following weekend when Lyon lost 0-2 at home.

Gradually things started to improve as Abner built up an understanding with his new team mates and grew in confidence. They picked up a first win of the season on matchday three with a 4-3 victory against Strasbourg and soon found a bit of consistency. Abner started each of the first six Ligue 1 matches, either at left-back or as wing-back whenever Sage opted for a 3-5-2 formation.

He even scored his first goal for Lyon, the opener in a 4-0 win away at Le Havre in October, before dropping to the bench for a few games as the returning Tagliafico took over on the left side of the defence. His second goal followed soon after, in a 2-2 Europa League draw away at Hoffenheim. Since then, he has been rotated in and out of the starting XI by Sage, sharing the role with Tagliafico whilst clearly growing into the Lyon shirt and looking more assured with every outing.

Adding to a long list of Brazil internationals at OL

Indeed, Abner’s performances for Lyon had not gone unnoticed back home in Brazil and he was called up to the Brazilian national team squad for the first time in October 2024 by coach Dorival Júnior. He started both matches for the Seleção as they beat Chile and Peru in World Cup Qualifying and retained his place the following month for a pair of 1-1 draws against Venezuela and Uruguay.

Abner’s sudden elevation to the Brazil team means that Lyon now find themselves in the enviable position of having the current starting left-backs for both Brazil and Argentina and he is scheduled to come up against Tagliafico during the next international break, in March 2025, when Brazil travel to their southerly neighbours.

Whether both players are still at the club by then remains to be seen as Lyon are desperate to raise funds and may be forced to sell during the January transfer window, but for now they have an embarrassment of riches in this department.

A whirlwind rise to the Hurricane

Abner was born in Presidente Prudente, a city of around a quarter of a million inhabitants in São Paulo State. He began his youth career with spells at local club Grêmio Desportivo Prudente and then Mogi Mirim before signing for Campinas based Ponte Preta in 2017. It was there that he broke through into senior football, making his first team debut in the Paulista State Championship in March 2019, aged just 18. He went on to play nine matches in the Brazilian Serie B later that season and notched up first ever professional goal.

Those performances were enough to attract the attention of Club Athletico Paranaense, across the state border in neighbouring Paraná. The Curitiba based club shelled out around €2.4 million for the teenager’s services in July 2019 and he signed a five year contract with the ‘Furacão’ or Hurricane, as they are known. Abner was a regular in their matchday squad for the remainder of the campaign but only made seven appearances as he gradually adjusted to Serie A football.

First taste of silverware

Future national team manager Dorival Júnior had taken the reins at Athletico in time for the 2020 season, but the state championship, the Campeonato Paranaense, had barely got underway when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The resultant suspension of all footballing activities in Brazil imposed a four month hiatus on Abner Vinícius’ nascent career. The competition resumed in July and Athletico advanced to the final where they faced their cross-town rivals Coritiba over two legs. Unfortunately both matches had to be played behind closed doors due to the virus, so nobody was present to witness a pair of dramatic stoppage time goals in the second leg that sealed a 3-1 aggregate victory and the first trophy of Abner’s career.

Abner had played the full ninety minutes in both legs of the final and was the undisputed first choice left-back when the new Serie A campaign kicked off later that August. Dorival Júnior was dismissed after a run of four defeats in their opening six matches, but Abner only missed four matches all season as Athletico recovered to ninth place to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana.

Going for Gold

The ongoing effects of the pandemic continued to disrupt the 2021 season somewhat, but normality had returned enough for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to take place in July. Abner made his debut for Brazil’s U-23 team in a pre-tournament friendly match and, although he only got a solitary minute of playing time during the finals themselves, he collected an Olympic Gold Medal as part of André Jardine’s winning squad.

Abner returned from Japan as the Copa Sudamericana reached the quarter-finals stage and he helped Athletico get past LDU Quito and Peñarol to reach the final against compatriots Red Bull Bragantino at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo. Playing as a wing-back down the left side, he helped the ‘Furacão’ to a 1-0 win, meaning that he had lifted domestic, international and continental trophies in the space of sixteen months.

Libertadores heartbreak

The 2022 season saw Athletico Paranaense lose the Recopa Sudamericana against Palmeiras, reach the semi-finals of the Campeonato Paranaense, and finish an impressive sixth in Serie A. However, the highlight was their Copa Libertadores campaign, which took them all the way to the final at the Estadio Monumental Banco Pichincha in Guayaquil, Ecuador where they faced Flamengo of Rio de Janeiro for the continent’s most prestigious trophy.

It was a tight match, but a five minute period just before the interval proved pivotal when Athletico centre-back Pedro Henrique was dismissed for a second yellow card offence and Gabriel Barbosa scored the only goal of the game in first half stoppage time. The victorious Flamengo manager was none other than Dorival Júnior, who would go on to give Abner his first caps for Brazil less than two years later.

Real deal takes Abner to Spain

Another renowned manager, Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, opted to pay around €7 million to sign Abner Vinícius for Real Betis in the January 2023 transfer window. He made his debut as an extra time substitute in a Copa del Rey match against Osasuna. His future Lyon team mate Paul Akouokou also came off the bench a few minutes later, but neither could prevent a defeat on penalties following a 2-2 draw.

Abner was in and out of the Betis starting line-up during the second half of that 2022-23 LaLiga season as he adapted to European football following his move. He did start both legs of their UEFA Europa League last 16 tie against Manchester United but Betis ended up on the wrong end of a 5-1 aggregate scoreline. They eventually finished in sixth place in LaLiga.

Last season was slightly underwhelming for Betis as they crashed out of European competition and the domestic cup before the end of February and only managed to place seventh in the 2023-24 LaLiga table. On a personal note, Abner Vinícius struggled to hold down a regular spot in the starting line-up, but he did feature in just over half of their fixtures as he shared left-back duties with Juan Miranda. Both players were moved on in July 2024 as part of a clear-out that saw former Lyon hero Nabil Fekir also leave the club. Fekir went to Al Jazira in the UAE and Abner, of course, headed to Lyon.

Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pies

Price: £2.75 for a box of 6 (14/12/2024)

Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pies box
Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pies box

These are the premium mince pies from British supermarket chain Morrisons. They are part of Morrisons’ ‘the Best’ range of premium foods and therefore should be a cut above their standard Rich & Fruity Mince Pies. They are described on the front of the box as ‘melt-in-the-mouth short crust pastry generously filled with our indulgent mincemeat, infused with brandy and cider, seasoned with warming spices’. That’s enough to whet anyone’s appetite.

Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pie
Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pie

If the description on the top of the packaging didn’t fully convince you, there’s a further marketing blurb on one end. It says ‘expertly crafted using the finest ingredients and an authentic recipe, our deep filled mince pies are made with all-butter pastry – for those festive occasions when only The Best will do’.

The pies are attractively presented with a thick 8-pointed star shaped lid that is decorated with a snowflake pattern. Happily, they are suitable for vegetarians.

Cold Taste Test

These Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pies have some of the thickest pastry cases of any of the mince pies that I have sampled ahead of Christmas 2024. In my book, that is a good thing, because this is good pastry. It’s nice and crisp on the outside and not overly stodgy on the inside considering its thickness, which could have made it difficult to cook right through. If I were to be particularly critical then I might suggest that the texture could be a little more crumbly, but on the whole it is pretty good.

The mincemeat, when cold, is quite a densely packed and cohesive substance. It’s not as juicy or fruity as many of its competitors and the constituent pieces are mostly small. It has quite a tangy taste at first and I could pick out hints of citrus flavours and spices but not much trace of the alcohol.

Hot Taste Test

A short blast in the microwave is the way I’ve heated up all the mince pies in this series for the hot taste test, so for the sake of consistency, these Morrisons ‘the Best’ Deep Filled Mince Pies received the same treatment. The pastry remained very good once it had been warmed up, and I felt as though there was more of a buttery taste in evidence. The mincemeat was woken up a bit by the heat and I got a few nice juicy pieces of vine fruit, but overall it still came across as quite a dry and unadventurous concoction. They could probably have been a bit more daring with the recipe rather than staying well within their comfort zone.

Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pie
Morrisons the Best Deep Filled Mince Pie

Verdict

Overall, these are pretty good mince pies and the price point is decent for a premium variety pie. They can more than hold their own against most of their rivals and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy them again. They’d make a good addition to anyone’s Christmas dessert or snacking spread. The pastry is their real strength, whereas the mincemeat filling is good, solid, yet unspectacular fayre.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 388 kcal
  • Fat: 13 g
  • Saturates: 8.3 g
  • Carbohydrate: 63.5 g
  • Of which sugars: 32.9 g
  • Fibre : 1.7 g
  • Protein: 3.4 g
  • Salt: 0.09 g
Mince Pie Reviews 2024 – main page

Morrisons Rich & Fruity Mince Pies

Price: £1.45 for a box of 6 (14/12/2024)

Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pies box
Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pies box

This is the standard mince pie offering from British supermarket chain Morrisons. Visually they appear very similar to the Aldi Holly Lane mince pies, with an embossed snowflake motif on the lid, although the design here is marginally less intricate.

Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pie
Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pie

These mince pies are described on the packaging as ‘rich and fruity mincemeat in a shortcrust pastry case’, which is straight and to the point, as befits a Yorkshire headquartered supermarket chain. The pies are suitable for vegetarians and they do unfortunately contain palm oil.

Cold Taste Test

The pastry isn’t great. It’s quite stodgy, even in the lid, which is flimsy enough to have drooped down onto the mincemeat on most specimens. The mincemeat itself is a nice traditional flavour with plenty of small pieces of fruit and a decent texture.

Hot Taste Test

The packaging recommends oven heating them or giving them a mere ten seconds blast in a 900w microwave. I opted for the latter. It had little effect on the pastry, which was still stodgy, particularly where the underside of the lid had been in contact with the filling. The warm mincemeat was delicious, with the puree becoming more fluid and the flavours enhanced, although it was teetering on the brink of being slightly too sweet.

Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pie
Morrisons Rich and Fruity Mince Pie

Verdict

The Morrisons Rich & Fruity Mince Pies are nice enough, but they are not quite up there with the very best of the rival supermarket standard range mince pies, such as the aforementioned Aldi Holly Lane mince pies. The pastry is what lets them down. Maybe it could be redeemed by a stint in a hot oven, but there are definitely better options out there at a similar price point.

Nutrition

Typical values (per 100g):

  • Energy: 410 kcal
  • Fat: 16 g
  • Saturates: 5.5 g
  • Carbohydrate: 61.6 g
  • Of which sugars: 25.2 g
  • Fibre : 2.4 g
  • Protein: 3.6 g
  • Salt: 0.28 g
Mince Pie Reviews 2024 – main page