“Nice” is one of the oldest clubs in France, a four-time gold medalist of the championship and a three-time winner of the Cup of the country. True, the lion's share of these awards was won in the middle of the last century, and in the recent history of the team everything is not going as smoothly as they would like.
The current composition of the football club "Nice"
However, thanks to the results of the past season, the French are playing in the Europa League and, if it were not for the defeat of two matches from Napoli in the last round of the Champions League qualification, they would have made it to the group stage of the main European tournament. Third place in the French championship 2016-2017 with a huge margin from the closest pursuers can be explained by a significant change in the composition of “Nice” before the start of a successful season. Here the role was played not only by new legionnaires, but also by the ripened pupils of the club’s football academy, which should be especially nice to the owners and coaches of the team.
Separately, it is worth noting the appearance in the main clip of
Mario Balotelli, who, oddly enough, came to the court here (after the disastrous performances for “Milan” and “Liverpool”) and accumulated fifteen goals in the 2016-2017 championship.
Wesley Snyder and Dante also significantly strengthened the game in midfield and in defense, respectively. The Dutchman, plus everything, adheres to standards.
To date, the composition of the club looks like this:
- goalkeepers - Joan Cardinal (DOS), Walter Benitez (res);
- defenders - Arno Suquet, Dante, Maxim Le Marchand, Christophe Jalle, Malang Sarr, Marlon, Patrick Burner, Racine Coley;
- midfielders - Pierre Lees-Melou, Vincent Cosiello, Jean Michel Seri, Wesley Sneijder, Allan Saint-Maximin, Bassem Srarfi, Remy Walter, Adrien Tamese, Nampalis Mendy, Vincent Marcel, Arno Lusamba, Hisham Maugo, Jean Victor Machen;
- attack - Mario Balotelli, Ignatius Ganago, Alassan Plea.
Europa League
After two rounds of the group stage of the tournament, the French club leads, ahead of the Italian “Lazio” in terms of the difference between goals scored and goals conceded. The next game with a team from Rome should largely become indicative and reveal a clear favorite of the quartet. It should be noted the high performance of the current composition of “Nice” in the Europa League: eight goals scored in two games and only one conceded. However, both previous rivals, frankly, are not the most dangerous: “Vitesse” and “Sylte-Waregem”. But even with an unsuccessful game with “Lazio”, leaving the group can be considered a resolved issue.
Prospects
In August of this year, there were rumors that the French midfielder Jean Michel Seri was interested in Barcelona and was ready to pay up to forty million euros for it. However, it later turned out that this player was considered by the Basques “as an option”, and in the end there was no transition. This is probably for the better, as the player has been great in joining the main squad of “Nice” (in 2015 he moved to the club from “Pasush de Ferreira”). Last season, he scored seven goals and gave eight assists.
Now the team is in the middle of the League 1 table due to an unsuccessful start, but is gradually gaining momentum and at the same time points. Lucien Favre (head coach) intends to finish in the top five and sets his guys up for it. This is quite favorable for the current composition of “Nice”.