Wally with a Brolly

Next up in our list is another French player, this time Romain Alessandrini of Rennes.

Alessandrini: a difficult path to Ligue 1 but now he's heading for the top.

French football seems to love a tale of rags to riches. From Drogba to Ribery and more recently Mathieu Valbuena, Laurent Koscielny or Olivier Giroud, the Ligue 1 seems to unearth gems who haven't reached the top in a conventional way. All four of them played at the equivalent of League 1 or even lower (for Valbuena, Koscielny and Giroud) and yet went on to play for top European clubs as well as for their country.

Romain Alessandrini might just be another example. After a tough footballing upbringing, the young Rennes winger discovered Ligue 1 football this season at the age of 23. But he literally had to survive before that to keep such a dream alive.

Alessandrini started in Marseille's youth team. Having grown up in the city itself, his mind was clearly set on pulling on the great white OM shirt. With players like Laurent Blanc, Ravanelli and then Drogba playing in Marseille, and knowing the ebullient nature of the city for its football team, it was no surprise that a young Romain dreamt of showing off his skills at the Velodrome.

But it wasn't to be. Not showing enough potential, and with a slight physical nature, Alessandrini wasn't kept at Marseille past the age of 15. Undeterred, he searched another club in which he could finish his apprenticeship. For a man of sunny South of France, it must have come as a shock that his only option was FC Gueugnon, a club from the East of France situated in Burgundy. Forget the glamour of Marseille, Gueugnon was heading down the leagues, dropping out of Ligue 2 in the early 2000's, only years after winning the League Cup past all odds (with a young Sylvain Distin!).

But Romain displayed great determination and stuck it out. He was rewarded during the 2008-2009 season when he finally played his first games for the club in National, the equivalent of League 1. After a promising first season in which he played 27 league games, Alessandrini turned professional in 2009.

But then disaster struck. A bad injury in the first game of the 200-2010 season left him on the sidelines for most of the campaign. But his return for the last few games of the season showed him to be a young player with potential.

And Clermont came sniffing around. As perennial Ligue 2 strugglers, the club was used to shopping in the lower leagues, and they clearly saw something in Alessandrini. Signing the winger on a two-year contract in the summer of 2010, Clermont nonetheless didn't expect the sort of impact Romain would have.

22 goals in two seasons from the left wing helped propel Clermont up the table. Consistently in the top 3 for a majority of the 2011-2012 season, the club finally finished 5th, with a small squad suffering from the repeated physical demands of a long season.

But Alessandrini's time had been a clear success. He had been the main creative force in an overachieving team, and had even been voted in Ligue 2's team of the year in both seasons at Clermont. It was time for him to move on to bigger things.

And he wasn't short of suitors. Sochaux were the favourites but the 23 year-old decided to join a rebuilding Rennes at the last minute. And boy has he set the world alight. Playing on the left wing in a pleasant, ball-playing team, Alessandrini has already scored 7 goals in 16 Ligue 1 games, and a few spectacular ones.


Even though he is predominantly left-footed and of a relatively small build (1m73 only), Alessandrini has impressed by his ease on the ball and his ability to create as well as score important goals. With Rennes lurking in 4th, only 6 points behind the leaders, there is a possibility we might see Alessandrini in Europe next season. That is, if he hasn't made it to the France team before that. A likeable prospect for the future.


Worst case scenario: A left-footed Mathieu Valbuena
Best case scenario: A better, less selfish version of Hatem Ben Arfa.