Face of the Future, Jimmy Briand

I’ll admit to not being as familiar as I should have been with Stade Rennais striker Jimmy Briand. As penance I’m reading lots of French articles and watching Setanta archives and DailyMotion videos. And I’m now wondering why this kid was not on my radar screen before, because what I’m seeing is impressing me. There’s the definite possibility that Jimmy Briand could become a regular for Les Bleus in the next few years.

Jimmy is twenty-one. born August 2, 1985. Stade Rennais is his club formateur, the club he grew up in beginning in 2001. He was one of four young players nominated for the Young Player of the Year this year — an award which was won by his Bleus teammate Samir Nasri and for which another Bleus teammate, Karim Benzema, was also nominated.

He’s going to be “discussing his options” before next season, and Arsenal, Lens and St. Etienne have all expressed an interest.

According to the Stade Rennais website, he’s been called up for les Espoirs 22 times, scoring nine goals. Sky Sports quotes Espoirs coach Rene Girard as saying:

“I have been convinced since his first match against Sweden,” said Girard. “Jimmy is an absolute professional. He has an exceptionally rare quality for a forward. With some forwards, if they are having a bad day, you almost play down to ten. When it doesn’t work well for him, he does his best to make it work for the other players.”

A valuable quality indeed.

For a kind of sweet interview with Jimmy after his France callup, click here for French, here for a Google translation. One question:

Sport24.com: Who did you think of the moment when you learned [of the callup]?
Jimmy Briand: Of my mother, who called me to congratulate me and who was very proud of me. But I also had a small thought for Mr. Cueff, our former president. He had two dreams: to win in Nantes and that one of his players be called up for the France NT under his presidency…

Oh, and his idol? Nicolas Anelka. I knew I liked this kid!

Now let’s check out Jimmy in action, shall we?