“Elegance personified” - Gianluigi Buffon drowns out booing fans at Italy-France friendly

Many might (rightly) maintain that the so-called “beautiful game” ain’t exactly what it used to be.

Big bucks and “state of the art” hairdos (or “hairdon'ts) seem to count as much as on-the-pitch skills for the elite that make it to the top of the game.

And let’s not take a nightmare trip down memory lane to the “Knysna affair” at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when the French national side threw a collective tantrum and refused to train.

It surely marked an all-time low in (French) football.

But there are exceptions of course. And perhaps it should come as no surprise that the man who recently showed such outstanding behaviour should be an Italian.

After all, it’s a country in which football is revered - even among those who don’t really follow the game.

Look at the recent Euro 2016 (held in France) when every Italian man, woman and child (enough hyperbole?) seemed to follow the fortunes of Gli Azzuri until they were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage.

Anyway, back to that man, Italy’s goalkeeper and captain and (more hyperbole perhaps - but just ask an Italian) legend, 38-year-old Gianluigi Buffon.

Gianluigi Buffon (screenshot from Rahim Abdullaev’s YouTube video)

“An example to what we should be seeing on the pitch”, said Fifa president Gianni Infantino after a friendly played on September 1 in the Italian city of Bari between the hosts and France (a game which Italy were to lose 1-3)

But what exactly had Buffon done to earn such plaudits - not only from Infantino but much of a soccer mad world.

Quite simply he had single-handedly led the response to counter booing that occurred from a small section of the crowd at the Stadio San Nicola while the French national anthem was being played before the match began.

Buffon reacted immediately, applauding La Marseillaise throughout, followed by his teammates and, it has to be said - a vast majority of those in the stadium.

Such class Monsieu Buffon!

Friday’s French music break - Måns Zelmerlöw, “Should've gone home (Je ne suis qu’un homme) "

If you’ve been following Friday’s French music break for a while now, you might have noticed the trend for some featured artists to sing only in English…or a sometimes approximate version thereof.

Conversely, there are also several non-native French speakers who choose to re-record tracks they've originally sung in another language specifically for release in francophone countries.

Josef Salvat did it with “Open season” for example.

And so did Mika - although, with “Elle m’a dit”,  he went the whole hog and released a song he had never previously recorded in English.

Joining the club is Swedish pop singer and TV presenter Måns Zelmerlöw with his plaintive (good word that) but catchy “Should've gone home (Je ne suis qu’un homme) “

Måns Zelmerlöw - screenshot from video of “Should've Gone Home (Je ne suis qu’un homme"

Actually on first hearing the song, you might well think it’s Salvat again as it has the same sort of feel to it.

Now, Eurovision fans among you (and there are a fair number scattered around the globe) will probably recognise the name, because Zelmerlöw won the whole shebang for his country back in 2015 and was one of the co-hosts at this year’s show.

Originally released in August 2015 and taken from his sixth studio album “Perfectly damaged”, the French version of “Should've gone home (Je ne suis qu’un homme)” keeps the original melancholic (OK so let’s not exaggerate too much) chorus cry.

But most the verses have been translated - courtesy apparently of singer-songwriter Doriand (Laurent Lescarret) who has done the same for the likes of Mika, Julien Doré and Camélia Jordan.

Anyway, “Should've gone home (Je ne suis qu’un homme) “ isn’t that bad, and neither is Zelmerlöw’s French as the audience at a one-off performance at la Maroquinerie in Paris in October 2015 was able to hear he performed  Gilbert Bècaud’s French standard “Et maintenant”.

Et maintenant

So take a listen.

And just in case there are any Swedish readers out there - Ha en bra helg

Has Emmanuel Macron really “betrayed” François Hollande?

How does the (perhaps somewhat sexist) saying go? “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”? ( an interpretation  based on a quotation from English Restoration period poet and playwright William Congreve’s “The Mourning Bride”).

Well, how about when it’s applied to a president, seemingly “betrayed” by one of his closest advisers and former (if the word is not too strong) “acolyte”.

Yes, you’ve guessed it - if not at least from the title.

The man (or men) in question is the French president, François Hollande, and his, now, former minister of Economy, Emmanuel Macron.

“Shocked” and “betrayed” is apparently how Hollande feels.

“If anyone believes they can go it alone and implement policies by themselves, they’re wrong,” he said on Wednesday to several hundred leaders of associations - an allusion to Macron’s resignation, without mentioning him by name, as well as his lacking a party machinery to back him.

And those words (at least the “betrayal” part, because let’s face it, Macron’s decision hardly took anyone by surprise) have been echoed by others in the Socialist party as the both the president and his government ministers try “ostrich-in-sand” style to ignore the reality and get on with surviving their final months before next year’s elections.

But was it really a "betrayal" or sign of disloyalty?

Sure, Macron had been an adviser to Hollande at the Elysée palace before landing (being given) his ministerial portfolio in August 2014 (replacing Arnaud Montebourg), but he has hardly made a secret of his ambitions.

In April this year he launched his own movement En Marche “which was neither of the right nor the left. Open to anyone from any political party” -  widely interpreted as a testing ground for a potential presidential bid in 2017.

And although a member of a (supposedly) leftwing government, Macron has always maintained he would be prepared to work with those from the right who share his values.

Indeed just weeks before his resignation, Macron admitted that he “wasn’t a Socialist”, totally in keeping with his repeated attacks on subjects dear to the party’s faithful such as the 35-hour working week.

No, 38-year-old Macron has never held elected office and doesn’t have a party machinery behind him. And that might hurt him - or at least make it difficult - should he decide to take a shot at next year’s presidential election

And yes, Hollande gave him his break and has “tolerated” his outspokenness and inability to play the collective solidarity game that is so “treasured” (if only in name) among French politicians.

But that’s the point.

French (any) politics is also about individuals full of ambition, not only for serving their country (which is what they want the electorate to believe and in true Méthode Coué come to believe themselves by repeating it endlessly) but also for their own self glory.

And it’s not “betrayal” if you realise that the man you once advised is no longer listening (or perhaps never was) and is refusing to see merit in your arguments.

You might not like what Macron stands for (pro-business, too removed from traditional leftwing politics, anti public sector and too reformist) but you have to respect that his decision to resign is one based on total and utter common sense and is a move that could (unlikely but nonetheless possibly) shake up France’s jaded political landscape.