The French defender said he wants to leave Chelsea for AC Milan but the English champions are refusing to let him go.
The presidential visit to Clairefontaine ahead of a World Cup has become a ritual for French leaders ever since Jacques Chirac visited the squad in the run-up to the 1998 tournament.
Zinedine Zidane will accept an offer from Jose Mourinho to work more closely with the Real Madrid coach, the former France great has said.
France midfielder Franck Ribery was voted Bundesliga player of the year in a poll of 268 league players published in Kicker newspaper on Monday.
The English champions reached agreement with the French goalkeeper to terminate his contract with the club with effect from 30 June 2004.
A round-up of Saturday's action in LaLiga, Serie A and Ligue 1.
AC Milan's match against Torino was abandoned as fans clashed.
Didier Drogba is revelling in the pressure of spearheading Chelsea's triple trophy challenge despite having struggled for his best form this season.
Olympique Marseille striker Djibril Cisse said on Saturday he would be returning to action within three weeks following a long injury layoff.
Florian Thauvin headed in Payet's free kick after 15 minutes and Clinton Njie calmly slotted home in the 63rd to put Marseille in the driving seat against the Austrian champions.
French football was again marred by violence after Olympique de Marseille's Ligue 1 match against Olympique Lyonnais was called off on Sunday when the visitors' bus and some fans were pelted with stones and beer bottles, injuring Lyon coach Fabio Grosso.
The French Football Federation extended the ban on the Olympique Marseille goalkeeper for spitting at a referee till the end of 2005.
France coach Didier Deschamps confirmed his final Euro 2016 squad on Tuesday, including defenders Adil Rami and Samuel Umtiti in place of the injured Raphael Varane and Jeremy Mathieu. Liverpool centre back Mamadou Sakho was not included even though his 30-day provisional suspension for failing a drugs test expired last weekend. Hosts France geared up for the finals with a 3-2 victory over Cameroon in Nantes on Monday. They take on Scotland in Metz on Saturday.
Arsenal are not only hoping to win a first European trophy since 1994, but know their hopes of qualifying for next year's Champions League depend on winning the Europa League in the French city of Lyon next month.
Former Manchester United left back Patrice Evra announced his retirement from soccer on Monday, bringing a trophy-laden 20-year career to an end.
Soccer's player transfer system will be in the spotlight and could even be on the brink of collapse on Friday when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) announces its ruling on former France player Lassana Diarra's case against FIFA.
But it was man-of-the-match Dimitri Payet who scored his second goal in as many matches to put the Frenchmen through to the knockouts.
A summary of Saturday's action in the Serie A, Ligue 1 and Bundesliga
Summary of the Europa League semi-final matches played on Thursday.
Salzburg forced Lazio into a second-half capitulation as the Italians crashed out in the Europa League quarter-finals after losing 4-1 but Olympique de Marseille staged a thrilling fightback to see off visitors Leipzig 5-2 on Thursday. Arsenal also reached the semi-finals after recovering from a wobble to draw 2-2 at CSKA Moscow and progress 6-3 on aggregate, while favourites Atletico Madrid reached the last four after losing 1-0 at Sporting to go through 2-1 over the two legs.
Vinicius Jr came off the bench to score once and set up another goal to steer champions Real Madrid to a 4-1 fightback victory over Espanyol.
Mathieu Valbuena and Karim Benzema, embroiled in a sextape scandal, were omitted from France's squad on Thursday for the games with Germany and England later this month while Hatem Ben Arfa was recalled.
Liverpool laboured to a 2-0 win over Denmark's Midtjylland on Tuesday as a goal from Diogo Jota and a Mohamed Salah penalty secured a hard-fought Champions League Group D victory at Anfield.
Angel Di Maria delivered a near-perfect performance, scoring two and setting up another as runaway leaders Paris St Germain beat 10-man Olympique de Marseille 3-1 at home on Sunday.
Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was named African Footballer of the Year on Thursday, narrowly edging out Yaya Toure at the Confederation of African Football award ceremony.
Security failures highlighted at this weekend's French cup final need to be urgently sorted out before the start of Euro 2016 in three weeks' time, an official in charge of security at France's national football stadium said on Monday.
Troubled AC Milan were held to a goalless draw by AEK Athens
Paris St Germain's league record 36-game unbeaten streak came to an abrupt halt when they lost 2-1 at Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday.
Real Madrid's Karim Benzema, who won the 2022 Ballon d'Or award, is also in the shortlist.
Cristiano Ronaldo bagged his first five-goal haul in Real Madrid's 9-1 hammering of Granada while title-chasing Bayern Munich and Chelsea won again in Germany and England.
Olympique de Marseille were the fall guys on a hectic opening night of Europa League group stage action as German club Eintracht Frankfurt returned from the south of France with a surprise 2-1 victory on Thursday.
This is the first time that PSG is featuring in the finals of the Champions League.
The FIFA 2022 World Cup will kick-off in Qatar on Sunday, November 20. Here is a list of the 26-man squads playing in the quadrennial global football extravaganza.
Liverpool's Matip did not want to play for Cameroon for the moment because of a 'bad experience' with the previous coaching staff
Mbappe 'shocked as everyone else' by news of his wish to leave PSG
Barcelona wasted a golden opportunity to extend their lead at the top of LaLiga as they were shocked 1-0 at lowly Almeria on Sunday thanks to a first-half strike by El Bilal Toure.
All the latest football news from around Europe.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was again the chief tormentor as French champions Paris St Germain won 3-0 at Bastia to stay eight points clear at top of the Ligue 1 on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances