Euro Leagues: Ronaldo & Messi reunited? Who is Jeremy Jacquet, & can Riera revive Frankfurt?

0:00On the Football Daily Podcast, the EuroLeagues with Steve Crossman. Hello there, welcome to the EuroLeagues on the Football Daily Podcast. We've got loads to come up, including how good a£60 million signing is Julien Leroyne, Jeremy Jacquet? It's not Jeremy Jacket, is it? No, although I expect a lot of puns from English people about Jacquet and the jacket and leave your jacket there. Yes, yes. A full metal jacket and anything you want. Full metal Jacquet! Hey, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, the right pronunciation is Jérémy Jacquet. Don't say the T at the end, like you said for Payet, but not for Jacquet.

0:45Perfectly timed because we have our two most fashionable Euroleads guests with us, always in a beautiful chemise. Hello, Guillaume Balaguet. Chemise? That's a shirt, isn't it, I think? Yes, chemise, excellent. How are you, Guillaume? All good? Yeah, all good. What is French for bizarre multicoloured jumper? Hey, Archie Rinter. So does this mean in the Premier League we're now going to start calling Jared Gillette, Jared Gillet? Good stuff. So we will have Gillette against Jacquet at some point. Yeah. Gillette Jacquet. I love it. Well, he's going to be, I mean, he's not going to be on the Euroleagues.

1:25Maybe at some point we're going to talk about him on the Euroleagues. We're also going to do how FC Kern got 50 ,000 fans for a youth game. We'll talk about the new head coach at Frankfurt. Loads to come ahead of Le Classique as well. It kind of sort of feels like we're going to do chapter two in the absolutely mad story that is Roberto de Zerbi's Marseille future, or lack thereof. We're going to kick off, though, with actually a big story which is outside of Europe, but it's very much Euroleague's territory, which is what's happening with Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nasser. If you're not across any of this, so Ebola, the big Portuguese national newspaper, was reporting that Ronaldo refused to play because he's dissatisfied with how the club is being run.

2:09It's owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund. They own four clubs in the Saudi Premier League. They also obviously own Newcastle United. BBC Sports have been told that Al-Hilal, trying to sign Karim Benzema from Al-Itihad, is the principal reason for Ronaldo's frustrations. So the good thing, Guillaume, is he's very much staying in his lane, right? He's just concentrating on football. I just read something this morning that I want to start with. Do you know Georgina has got a Netflix series? And in it, they've got to move from the house in Madrid. And she moans that their furniture is far too big.

2:47Nobody wants it. They cannot put it on eBay or something similar because nobody wants it. Can't wait to see what the link here is going to be. Yeah, well, the writer goes in to say, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of those furnitures that is just far too big for certain leagues, for certain clubs, and maybe even sometimes for football. So it's quite clever. And it's a bit like that. The analysis that Cristiano Ronaldo does, it's short-term. He looks at what has happened recently, this transfer window, of course, and sees other clubs benefiting from it, even though he is one of the four that the public investment fund are in charge of.

3:33The other ones is Al-Hilal, Al-Hali and Al-Ithihad. And Al-Hilal has just got Benzema and Al-Nasser has got only a couple of players on a free. So he thinks this is not fair, an opportunity for Cristiano Ronaldo to win the league. He thinks probably he's only won one cup in his time there. But you can look at it in a different way. He gets paid£175 million a year, which that reduces a little bit the budget of Al Nasser, I think. Plus, in the past, there's been really, really good signings that has made Al Nasser quite competitive. Sorry, that number. That number. I cannot just kind of breeze by that as a number and a figure for one player.

4:14I know everything he's achieved in the game, Guillaume, and that is astounding. But also that figure is just... I just needed to say that just so that we're all on the same page. Please, off you go. It was a platform for others to come in and to make the league more interesting. That has got a cost, of course. They didn't have to pay a transfer. I suppose that helps. But in any case, it is Cristiano Ronaldo moaning that his team is not competitive enough. Doesn't see any other reasons why perhaps the team has not won anything yet, including the biggest trophy, of course, the league or the Champions League.

4:54But he's training again. He started training again yesterday, which suggests that perhaps he will play on Friday, maybe. I mean, it's such a shame, Jules, because normally multi-club ownership works so well. So, so well, isn't it? I mean, the irony is even more here. is because PIF owns 75 % of Al Hilal. The other 25 are some sort of consortium. And in that consortium, you've got a guy called Prince Al-Walid, who's very rich, obviously. He was the grandson of the founder of Saudi Arabia. And it's him who said, you know what? I've got a bit of change here, a bit of pocket money. I don't know what to do with it.

5:31Hey, why don't I just finance all seven of the Al Hilal, who is the biggest fan, transfers in this January transfer window, including Karim, of course. So the guy played with his own pocket. So he had nothing to do even with PIF and the money that PIF is investing in the club that they own. And Al Nasser a point behind Al Hilal in the table. So they can still very much win this title. Al Hilal playing today. As Guillaume said, Al Nasser play tomorrow against Al Itihal. It's a big game too. So it's not like if, I don't know, Cristiano was 10 points behind and the fact that Benzema was strengthening even more Al Hilal meant that it was impossible for him to win the league.

6:10They've got a good team with Kingsley Command, who arrived last summer, with Joao Felix, with obviously Cristiano himself, and a few others that are really high quality, and George Jesus on the bench. They can definitely win this Saudi Pro League title. I just don't know why he's moaning like this and then just throw the toys out of the prime and go on strike. George Jesus, who may be on the bench, but wasn't in his press conference, Guillaume. No, but it wasn't because the ownership told him not to go on the press conference, so it wasn't his own strike. Not to make the situation more complicated, I imagine.

6:47The only thing in favour of the Ronaldo moaning is that since his arrival, Al Nasser spending has been about£400 million, while Al Hilal has been£620 million. There is that, no doubt about it. But as Jules says, it's not that all of a sudden the fund decides, all right, we're just going to back one team ahead of the other. That doesn't exist. There is actually independence between the business sides of both clubs, the four clubs that actually the fund owns, and the sporting side. There is a limit of the money that they can spend. It also depends on the money that comes in. So there's certain logic to what's happening.

7:31he just sees Benzema going to the rival team that's ahead by one point in the league and then it all kicks off. Archie, if he continues to kick off, right? He's 40 now, isn't he? 41 today. 41. Bon anniversaire, Cristiano. Bon anniversaire. At 41, Archie, would this be it for him, do you think? Or would you think, no, we're probably going to see him back in Europe again? Who's going to be prepared to pay the wages that he wants? Will Cristiano Ronaldo be prepared to give up wages? I'm not sure. I'm also not sure... There's a buy-off cost of 50 million euros if he lives before the end of his contract in 2027.

8:16I'm not sure if there's a lot of self-reflection going on from Cristiano. He reached a plane of being so good in his life that so few can touch. So I think it is difficult to come down the other side from that. When even at international level, the thing that sticks out is after that defeat to Ireland, when Portugal go and stick in nine in the next game and everything seems to be harmonising a lot better without him, it does start to raise questions. And also, I think, to come back to Guillaume's furniture quandary, you want other bits of furniture in the room that are going to make it look nice.

9:03And the problem is, is competing pieces of furniture, there are players who are going to want to stand out in their own way. And Cristiano saying, come, come, basically be my butler, is the feeling that I'm getting. Just the reason why he won't go to Europe. Two reasons. One, when he tried to, after leaving Manchester United, George Mendes, the best agent in the world, couldn't get him a team in the Champions League. So that's why they split up. He's not his agent anymore. So if he couldn't get it then, now it's harder. But also, his 39 goals from 1 ,000. Have a guess, a wild guess, of what is his target in the rest of his career.

9:44Is it to get to 1 ,000 goals? It is to get to a thousand goals. It's the Saudi league, the MLS maybe. So let me jump in on that one, Jules, because this I think is really interesting, the idea of another league like Major League Soccer, which is not what it used to be, which is effectively a retirement home. But even if it were, this is the problem with going to Saudi, isn't it? Once you've gone there, you can never get that money anywhere else. So if this is his issue around what other teams are doing, can we really see him then taking a massive pay cut to go to somewhere like America to wrap up his career?

10:25That's if he wants to. Because he's earned enough money in his whole career now to say, OK, I'll go from£175 million a year to a normal contract, MLS, even if you're a design-inted player, let's say£5 or£6 million a year. he doesn't need even the the difference 170 million he doesn't really need that he's got so much I know you always want more money etc etc so it would be down to him I mean the best the fairytale story would be for him to go to sporting obviously and finish where it all started this would be so beautiful and everything it won't happen unfortunately but that would be I think the best way really of ending it so I disagree Gilles I want to see him score his 1000th goal for DC United but no he would score it for Al Nasser he'd probably be than playing with Cristiano Junior because by that time where Cristiano reaches the end of the contract I think his son will probably be good enough or not, that's not the problem here anyway, but they will make it happen, it will be very special it will be like the LeBron James and Bronny James in the NBA and then that will be it and after that he can say thank you for everything he might have won the World Cup with Portugal in the US in the summer too and said this is it, now I'm done, I've achieved everything I wanted to achieve You won't be surprised to hear that since 2012 that I know of, massive brands, massive names, massive companies have been trying to get Messi and Ronaldo in the MLS.

11:53They've got one part of the deal and if they feel that there is an option of whatever kind to get Cristiano to the MLS, there is always the possibility of doing a Messi, of paying whatever,$25 million a year and then put the rest into different ways, into pieces. Is it Messi going back to Newell's Old Boys, though, potentially? That would only be unknown anyway. Cristiano getting to the MLS and then going, ah, we're going to Newell's Old Boys. Newell's Old Boys have tried again for a long time. You had even his dad been involved in improvements in the club just in case Leo decides to go to Newell's Old Boys.

12:31Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Lionel Messi's dad is working for Newell's Old Boys in an attempt to make Newell's old boys the right place for Messi to drop back into? There was a gym that required improvement. So Leo Messi's dad put some money towards it. Conversations have continued. And yes, Newell's old boys has tried to paint it as it's not just Newell's that wants you back, it's Rosario that wants you back, it's Argentina that wants you back. But I see that very, very unlikely. Romantic, yes. He obviously never played for the first team of New York boys. It would be the way to finish his career.

13:10They will try. And meanwhile, you know, he's not doing too bad. He's in 49 games, 43 goals, 26 assists. So he's in a good form. Could do it in Argentina. But I see that very, very unlikely. I think sometimes with these things, we're chasing nostalgia so hard for some meaning. And I think that the most meaningful clashes have gone. unless at the World Cup this summer, we get Argentina-Portugal at a meaningful point in the tournament. I think that would be a rodeo that would actually appeal to the masses. But in the MLS, I just don't think... Maybe it will draw people into football who might not be watching otherwise.

13:57Because I think that's the thing I always want to remember, what I try and remember as well, is that there's so many different kinds of football fan. because it is truly the world's most popular sport, to a point that people watch the game for lots of different reasons. So your fan who goes in the stadium is not going to be, your match-going top five European league fan, are they going to be the target audience for Ronaldo against Messi in the MLS? Probably not. So I think it would draw an audience, but personally, would I be like, yes, I've got to watch that. I don't think so. So just to finish on the idea, Jules, of Messi and Ronaldo back in the same league, you know how they say that sequels tend to be rubbish?

14:45Sometimes reboots are really good. So couldn't this be like football's Batman Begins? Do you know what I mean? It's been away for ages. Let's just bring it back for one last hurrah. Yes, but it won't happen. I'm sorry to shut it with games. so he's just going to stay in Saudi Arabia and we might as well not bother this conversation and Messi in MLS and Messi might have this like a few months in Rosario to go back there because the MLS calendar schedule if you want is going to change in 2027 so there's actually a window where he could if he wanted to and if they could make it happen play a few games for New York boys at that time and let's not forget Angel Di Maria who's also Rosario born and bred went back there for the other club and he's doing really well and he's very happy too.

15:34But no, not in the same league, not against each other, unless it's the World Cup, like Archie said. Fair play. Let's move on to some interesting transfer stories from deadline day. Guillaume, why has Adam Ola-Luckman gone to Atletico Madrid? Because Simeone gave him a call, basically. He was almost all done with Fenerbahce, 8.5 million euros. It was a good deal. but Simeone as part of the conversations that Matteo Alemania, the director of football was having with Atalanta it was a call and he told him you will have the opportunity to play on the right hand side of the attack or the left hand side or even as a second forward so he's basically going to compete with Giuliano Simeone, his son with Nico Gonzalez who's just been signed and Juliano Alvarez who's the most expensive player at the club But it is that kind of depth that Atletico Madrid is looking for.

16:31Interestingly enough, it's not exactly what Simeone wanted. He wanted a forward, centre forward, and he wanted a holding midfielder, a centre midfielder, and he didn't get either of them. Hence his short answers in the last previous conferences, his unhappiness with the business of the club, even though they spent 54 million euros. and with the fact that he even left three or four, I think three slots in the bench empty to show his disgust. He doesn't trust the people coming through and he wants more players for the demands that he's having, which is winning the league or doing well in the Champions League.

17:11On the other side, Matteo Lemagne, who is backed up by the new ownership of the club, they actually ask him more of Simeone. So there's a little bit of attention and they feel that there is a bit of complacency into what's happening at the club out of the Champions League top eight, out of the league fight, really far away from Real Madrid and Barcelona. And they will play tonight against Metis in the cup in the quarterfinals to see what happens. So the third year consecutive language by January, they're basically not fighting for the league. So that's what's going on. There's two massive forces, ownership and director of football, pushing one way to give the man more of Simeone and Simeone showing his discontent with some of the decisions they're making.

17:59I know, Archie, what goes through your mind whenever Adamola Luckman comes up, especially when Adamola Luckman is going to Atletico Madrid. You're thinking about the only penalty in history worse than Brahim Diaz's when Adamola Luckman tried a Penenka on loan at Fulham. You know what's weird? I actually think of Adam Ola-Lukman mainly because in my set of bowls that I have, I have five instead of six because of a failed counterattack against Wolves, which was when I was just moved into my new flat and my mate knocked it off the back of the sofa. And that was because of Adam Ola-Lukman. You're what, sorry?

18:37Your set of? Bowls, you know, because you have a set of six. Oh, I see. God, you are so relatable. Thanks, mate. It's a sad word. Sorry, I see what you mean. What did you think he said, by the way? Well, I wondered if he meant like, as in like bull, like petonk. Oh, right. That's what I thought he meant. He's not the... Look, just because I'm a Fulham fan. Yeah. You know, and you just... No, my set of bulls to the quinoa. Who's Fulham's official petonk sponsor these days? There must be one. Sorry, go on. So the thing I was going to say is, the difference is I was in the stadium for his Europa League final hat-trick.

19:14So honestly, that has overridden any memory. And Marco Silva has meant that those dark Scott Parker memories are in the past now. It's fine. We don't need to think about these things. But yeah, I just think Adam Ola-Lukman so consistently performed for Atalanta before Ivan Juric came in. I'm interested to see how he makes this work in a side which is not going to be as geared around him or whether he can step up to be that player for Atletico because, I mean, Julian Alvarez hasn't scored since the start of November in the league and they could do with some fresh ideas and, yeah, creativity in that department and particularly away from home, they are not scoring many goals at all.

20:03I wonder if we kind of have to describe Adam O 'Luckman as one of the great kind of Premier League exports to Europe. He's certainly not one that gets talked about that much compared to others. I mean, how many end up at Atletico Madrid for a start? Barely any. The thing I pick out is that he's had such a unique career in terms of the achievement. We laugh before, but weirdly, I think I spoke about it a year ago when I was with you on EuroLeagues about that hat-trick in the Europa League final as well. it's such a special thing to score a winning goal in a final to score a hat-trick and be to to ruin by Leverkusen's perfect season as well it's such a stunning achievement that we'll stand for a good time yet and that he's that's not the only thing that he's achieved in the game I think the exciting thing for Adela Mola-Lukman is there's there's still stories to be written by him And when you talk about exports and that, I think it's just nice to see from an English perspective, as someone who grew up with not many players from, I'd say, the Premier League academies or English players going abroad.

21:21And now many more are having to do that just to get game time. But it's nice to see people adapt and shine on the continent. Right, Jeremy Jacquet, Jules,£60 million from Rennes to Liverpool. I'm already seeing the things that I fear about for young players, and he's 20, which is could be next Rafa Varane, his successor to Virgil van Dijk. Yeah. Who is he? He has the potential to be all of that. Right, OK, wow. I think he knows it, and Liverpool know it. You don't spend that much money on a player that you don't believe in the potential, or even in the current level. Although if you watched him last night in the Coupe de France with Rennes against Marseille, it's not that he just didn't have a good game.

22:07It was OK. It's just his team had a terrible game and they lost 3-0. But a year ago, he was playing in the second division with Clermont, finding far too easy for his level at only 19. Rennes called him back because they needed basically arguably their best player. They even had to pay to break their loan to bring him back to the team to play in Ligue 1, where he was outstanding pretty much the whole year and has been, but it's still a massive, and it shows you how quickly football can go, right? In both directions, but especially in this one, that in a year time you go from playing for Clermont in the French second division to be bought for£60 million by Liverpool Football Club.

22:47It's pretty remarkable. He's always been very good. He's one of the best defenders in his age group right now. He's played for France since he was 16. He's on the verge of the French national A team with Deschamps, maybe not for the World Cup, there's too much competition, but after that, surely Zidane will have a look. And from a Liverpool point of view, if you don't get him now, I think he would have gone to a massive club next anyway. So once you are Real Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern Munich or one of the English big clubs, you don't live there to go to Liverpool. So I think they were right to get him now.

23:26He will need a bit of time to adapt. He needs to bulk up a little bit physically, although he's tall, but he's got all the attributes. He's quick. He reached the game so well. He doesn't dive in. He's smart. He's good on the ball. He wins the jewels in the air, on the ground, everything. It's just looking so good for him. So I just hope it goes well. The figures that are paid for players that come to the Premier League are distorted by the amount of money that is in the Premier League. So take that aside. But there's something that I can tell you that is the envy of directors of football and owners of clubs in Spain, for instance, is how well France sell their product.

24:04I mean, 60 million pounds for a centre-back, who, as you said, was in the second division not so long ago. 52 million pounds for Lenny Euro, for instance, that kind of thing. It happens not very usually anywhere else. So I just wonder, Jules, if you look at how the French talent is being sold, what is it done that others can take advantage of and reproduce? That's a good point, Guillaume. I think it's a bit like when you sell your house. Your house is only worth what somebody is ready to pay for it, right? And it's the same for a player. We could all argue here and we could all give a valuation of Jérémy Jacquet if you'd all watched him for all 31 league games that he played in the French top flight.

24:44and we probably, in the end, we could agree on something that is not£60 million anyway. So did Liverpool overpay? Sure, but that's why they were ready to pay and same with Chelsea. They had the same offer and he chose the Liverpool project ahead of the Chelsea project. But I think there's a bit of, as great as the French academies are and to produce those kind of players year after year, every season, six months, is amazing. I think there's also probably a bit now of this reputation that French football academies and French clubs academies have, that everything and everybody that comes out of one of those academies, especially the best ones like Lyon, like Rennes, like PhD, like Monaco, would be the next Kylian Mbappé or the next Raphael Varane or the next this.

25:30And that you have to spend now 60, 70 million when they've only played 31 games in the case of Jérémy Jacquet in French top flights in their whole career, in their whole life. he's never even heard the music of the Champions League or the Europa League or the Conference League he's only played the French Cup because we don't even have a League Cup anymore and 31 games in France but that's why you have to pay so I think there's a bit of that as good as some of those academy products are for sure and some of them will be the best in the world in the next few years I think there's also the way I say there's also a bit of that reputation he must be very special because those French academies seem to produce all the time very special players they're not Ola and look at Leni Yoro I think he's a good example.

26:12It's probably easier to go to Liverpool now than it was for him to go to United at the time. But he's on the bench right now. He can't start for this Manchester United team. So let's hope that for Jacquet, it's a different pathway and Jorou is going to come good at some point for United or somebody else. But it's not always so straightforward when you make that big move to the Premier League. Yeah, no, that's true. But I guess there is also the fact that the French academies put a lot of information to the head of the player So they're very well versed into how to play different formations, different ways of playing.

26:45There's very good coaching. And also favour the physicality of the players. So that straight away translates very well into English football, I imagine. So they produce that kind of players. In Spain, the physicality is not a priority. For instance, you get very clever players. To be Mendy being a holding midfielder is an example of it. No, but it's good to see in every market just to sell your product that well. And just before Archie goes, Jacquet is part of this incredible 2005 generation that Rennes have had in the academy with Matisse Stel, with Desiree Dwey, with Januel Belosian, who's in Germany now, with Archie.

27:24And imagine when you were 12 or 13. What, sitting next to him? No, but imagine when you're 15 and you play against this Rennes team that has all these incredible players and talent and they want everything. Year after year after year, they want everything. And Guillaume is right, especially in Rennes. It's the mind and your football IQ probably first more than anything else. What piques my interest is the positions which France seems to do particularly well in. They've got great players of flair in there, but also the centre-back position, the rate with which French centre-backs come out at. If I ask Jules to name 10 now, I think how many of them would still, How many would numbers 9 and 10 start at the World Cup for other teams?

28:13And I think it would be over half, to be honest. I think also from a negotiating point of view, if you're Ren, you can say, it feels like one of those supermarket adverts, this isn't just any centre-back, this is a French centre-back that you have here. It adds a certain number to the price. And when it comes to hype, I asked one or two people about Jacquet as well. And I heard touch like Bergkamp. And I was like, this is, he's not done anything yet. And he's already having this on his shoulders. And I'm repeating it as well, which is not helping, I guess, as well. But yeah, it's wild. Jules, tell us why it's PSG 1 Barcelona 0 when it comes to a certain young player this week.

29:05this is an interesting story. It is, it is. And it'd be very interesting to hear Guillaume's take as well. Pedro Fernandes, or Pedro Fernandes, but draw is the nickname that he goes about and you call him, was this very young 18-year-old promising product from the academy, from La Masia. We go again to academy work and everything. He'd been playing already for the Barcelona first team this season. Had a release clause of€6 million on his contract, which is very low, even at such a young age, for Spanish standards. whose agent is the same agent as Luis Enrique, Ivan de la Peña, the former Little Buddha, great player.