5 Reasons to Watch French Ligue 1 This Season

“This is the most exciting season in years” is something that is said ahead of every brand new domestic football campaign across Europe. But that cliché rings particularly true when talking about the upcoming 2013-2014 Ligue 1 season.

French football has undergone a drastic face-lift since Paris Saint-Germain’s takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. But this summer it received a much needed nip and tuck thanks to the arrival of financial heavyweights Monaco. 

With both the capital club and the principality outfit now able to attract some of the best talent in world football, France is set to explode onto the European scene as a genuine top league in the making.

Not only does Le Championnat boast PSG and Les Monegasques, it has some of the best young talent around at present. There are also a number of sides capable of upsetting the two major favourites in the quest for the title. 

So without further ado, here are a few reasons why you should be paying more attention to Ligue 1 this season.  

PSG and Monaco

For obvious reasons, PSG and Monaco’s expected title race is arguably the major reason to sit up and take notice of Ligue 1 this season.

With stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimović, Radamel Falcao, Edinson Cavani, James Rodriguez, Thiago Silva and João Moutinho going head-to-head for the title and Champions League qualification, it is a thoroughly enticing prospect. 

La Liga is often criticised as a “two-team league” the same way that the English Premier League is bemoaned for the difficulty of separating the top four to five teams. The Bundesliga will surely follow suit if Bayern Munich continue to buy the best domestic talent in bulk.

But France has not even become a two-team league just yet.

The French champions PSG have been heavily invested in for two years, yet they have only just managed to make that financial muscle count. Last season’s title win was their first silverware under new ownership and more importantly, a first since 1994.

But to say that PSG are dominant in French football, having won only a single domestic trophy under QSI, is only accurate from a financial standpoint. Until Monaco start to dominate the league and domestic cups, they too cannot be considered preeminent.

That is what makes the battle between the pair so intriguing.

Monaco have skipped a few stages in their development, profiting massively from PSG having trodden that path before them.

Now both sides must do battle, arguably ahead of time, to take the upper hand.

To make it even more interesting, both will be armed with a stellar collection of talent that is difficult to better anywhere in Europe at present.

Challengers

It won’t be plain sailing for PSG and Monaco though - far from it, in fact.

There are a number of ambitious challengers in the form of Élie Baup's Olympique de Marseille, Saint-Etienne and perhaps even Nice under the guidance of Claude Puel. Of course all of them are capable of securing Champions League football at the very least. 

Olympique Lyonnais are also likely to challenge despite an underwhelming transfer window. They have kept most of their vibrant, young talent intact ,and they have the pedigree of previous years of success to call upon in the thick of a title run-in. 

Stade Rennais can also be considered outsiders despite a particularly disappointing 13th place finish last season - the Breton side’s lowest in a decade. French tactician Philippe Montanier who masterminded Real Sociedad’s miraculous Champions League qualification last season now leads them.

PSG and Monaco are rightly considered the two favourites, especially with the former as defending champions, but that does not mean that either will canter to the title.

Expect a reinvigorated and controversy-free (Joey Barton-less) Marseille, and a youthful Lyon side to provide the stiffest challenges.

Young Talent

The senior French national team might be stagnating at present under the guidance of Didier Deschamps, but the future of French football is looking extremely bright.

This summer, the French won their first-ever under-20 World Cup in Turkey on penalties against Uruguay. The under-19’s then reached the final of the European championship in Lithuania before losing out to Serbia.

Despite a number of high-profile departures over the past few seasons, there is still an abundance of domestic talent in France at present. More importantly, that talent is now opting to stay in France instead of looking for moves abroad. 

Take Marseille’s signing of Giannelli Imbula from newly promoted Guingamp for instance. The player could have joined Chelsea if reports are to be believed (h/t Talk Sport), but instead he opted to join Elie Baup’s ambitious side. Ligue 1, and Ligue 2, are both brimming with young talent at present and top-flight sides are recognising that.

Take PSG, for example. They boast the emerging talents of exciting teenagers Hervin Ongenda, Adrien Rabiot, Lucas Digne and Kingsley Coman.

Marseille also snapped up talented left back Benjamin Mendy as well as Imbula this summer. 

So far, Lyon have kept hold of French internationals Clément Grenier and captain Maxime Gonalons as well as highly rated defender Samuel Umtiti.

Saint-Etienne, so impressive on their way to the Coupe de la Ligue last season, have only lost Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and they preserved prodigious talents such as Kurt Zouma and Josuha Guilavogui. 

Meanwhile, Montpellier can list exciting 23-year-old Rémy Cabella and 22-year-old Benjamin Stambouli as two of their key players despite their relative youth.

Lille’s Florian Thauvin was a revelation at SC Bastia last season and in the under-20 World Cup. Despite his poor attitude and desire to leave Les Dogues because of a lack of European football according to France Football (h/t ESPN FC), Ligue 1 has kept him in its grasp for now.

Also, Monaco’s 17-year-old Anthony Martial, regarded as a phenomenal prospect at Lyon, could turn into one of the newly promoted outfit’s most sage signings amidst a flurry of cash. Tempestuous 24-year-old Yohan Mollo, a star for Saint-Etienne when on loan from Nancy last season, even starts the year in Ligue 2 with the relegated Lorraine-based club.

France is a hotbed of talent waiting to explode and usurp their largely inefficient senior compatriots on the international stage ahead of Euro 2016 on home soil.

Competition

Following PSG’s title win last season, their first in 19 years, Ligue 1 enjoyed its sixth different champion in the past six seasons. There's a real chance that there will be a seventh in seven this year. 

To those who look at Monaco’s investment and just assume that it will be a straight shoot-out between PSG and Les Monegasques for the French title, you are wrong. Le Championnat is a difficult league to dominate, impossible to predict and although the cream will eventually rise to the top, it won’t be a walk in the park. 

Since Lyon’s domestic hegemony ended in 2008, French football has improved across the board and the average standard is much higher now than it ever has been. It is easy to look at the names of some of the teams in the league such as the unfashionable likes of Evian, Lorient, Valenciennes and Stade de Reims, and to dismiss them because they are teams you have never heard of before.

That does not automatically mean that they are poor. Quite the opposite in fact. Some of these sides are highly ambitious and brilliantly innovative.

Take Lorient for example. They snapped up Burkino Faso’s Africa Cup of Nations sensation Alain Traoré from Auxerre one year ago, and they have seen his potential value rocket since then with some immense domestic and international showings. His untimely injury mid-tournament in South Africa means that Les Merlus have been able to hold onto their star talent for now.

Injury-prone former Arsenal striker Jérémie Aliadière was a low-risk but high-gain gamble on a free transfer two seasons ago; the Frenchman went 15 league goals in 31 appearances last year. Bruno Ecuele Manga is a sought-after (h/t the Daily Mail) strong and athletic defender, among the league’s best, now courted by a handful of European clubs. He arrived for a relatively small fee from second tier Angers under the expert guidance of President Loic Fery and coach Christian Gourcuff.

Lorient are just one of the many examples that prove that these teams and these talents are not uncommon in France.

In fact, it is the opposite; this is how French football works. Unfortunately, those teams are easily overlooked until you pay more attention to the action and see them holding their own against the likes of PSG.

Rapid Development/Euro 2016

Crucially, Ligue 1 is in the process of evolving into a league capable of being one of Europe’s best and is currently enhancing its continental and worldwide prestige. In 2016, France will host the European championships and the country is currently in the process of undergoing a makeover in order to be ready for the big kick-off.

For top-flight football, that means new and improved stadiums, a growth in prestige and a drive to make not only European football fans, but also French fans who have shunned the game themselves, aware of the massive leaps Le Championnat is making. 

Ambitious moves are becoming more common in France. Take the impressive coup of Rennes appointing Philippe Montanier as coach. Persuading him to leave Real Sociedad and Champions League football for a team with plenty of potential but who finished 13th last season was no easy feat, but they still achieved it successfully. 

Also, more and more goals are being scored each season, breaking down the myth that Ligue 1 is not a high-scoring or entertaining league to watch. France also has the mission of needing to overtake Portugal, and possibly Italy, in the UEFA coefficient ranking by producing more sides capable of reaching the latter stages of European competition.

PSG reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League last season and will be aiming to do so again this term. If Monaco qualify for European football’s top competition this campaign, their goal will be exactly the same and we have already seen them demonstrate their ability to do so on the transfer market. 

It might not be as organic as the Bundesliga’s successful business model, but French football needed investment on this scale to kick-start it; to give it a chance to catch up with its European rivals. Otherwise it was too far behind. In time, given the level of domestic talent produced per year, the league can become self-sustainable to a degree. 

However, that will only happen when PSG and Monaco can succeed domestically and in Europe without relying heavily on foreign talent and by investing more in young French players instead. That has already started to happen with the French champions signing Lucas Digne and Monaco showing great awareness to spot a potential bargain capture in Anthony Martial.

As mentioned earlier, France’s next potential golden generation is currently coming through and it is up to PSG and Monaco to share their wealth around the league. Once that happens, the trickle-down effect will reinvigorate the smaller clubs who produce these talents but are unable to compete at the top financially.

Ligue 1 is more than just a league with two rich teams in it. French football is set for further growth and there can be no doubt that Le Championnat is the place to be this year.