In many respects, the 2017-18 Ligue 1 campaign represented a return to business as usual. PSG blew their rivals out of the water, reclaiming the title from Monaco, and Lyon and Marseille confirmed that, with their new investors, they are slowly returning to a place where they can challenge for the league title. While the summer transfers of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé caught the eye around the world, this season has been a watershed moment in terms of coaches setting up their sides to play more entertaining, attacking football. From Unai Emery at PSG to Olivier Dall’Oglio at Dijon, managers ensured their teams put on spectacles, representing a definitive departure from a more turgid style of football. There were 1,033 goals scored this campaign (2.72 per match), the highest since the 1982-83 season. So, who deserves special recognition following a truly memorable year?
Player of the season: Luiz Gustavo, Marseille
Despite not being shortlisted for this award by the UNFP (the footballers’ union), Gustavo is fully deserving of it, having been Marseille’s midfield lynchpin all season. He has brought a new level of resolve and attacking impetus to the side, with the odd spectacular goal thrown in for good measure. The difference between the Brazilian and the player he replaced, William Vainqueur, was worth far more than the extra 15 points Marseille amassed compared to last season. He has not been as individually brilliant as Neymar or even Nabil Fékir – the other players we considered – but we have chosen Gustavo for his consistency and the way he has improved.
Goal of the season: Nabil Fékir, Bordeaux 3-3 Lyon
This goal combines quality, power and sheer audacity. Taking the ball in his stride from midfield after pressing a Bordeaux throw, Fékir takes aim and delivers a shot from the halfway line, driven with such power that it barely rises on its path into the back of the net. There are several other contenders for this award, including strikes by Malcom, Benjamin Jeannot and Layvin Kurzawa, but Fékir’s goal is without peer.
Young player of the season: Lucas Tousart, Lyon
Kylian Mbappé and Malcom had the more eye-catching moments, and the other members of Lyon’s midfield triumvirate – Houssem Aouar and Tanguy N’Dombélé – were more imaginative but, as with Gustavo, consistency has made the difference in this category. Tousart’s steady presence at the base of midfield has been a constant for Lyon this season, no small feat for a player who only recently turned 21. Even as the team has weathered injury and tactical switches aplenty, the former Valenciennes man has been a metronomic presence, flexible, intelligent and superb in the air, allowing Lyon’s attacking football to thrive without sacrificing their defensive shape.
Lucas Tousart in action for Lyon against Montpellier in March. Photograph: Manuel Blondeau/Icon Sport via Getty Images
Match of the season: Marseille 2-2 PSG
Despite taking only one point, Marseille truly re-announced themselves as a force to be reckoned with in this game. A typically raucous crowd at the Vélodrome witnessed a red card for Neymar, who had squared up to Lucas Ocampos, and what they thought was a volleyed winner from Florian Thauvin after Luis Gustavo and Neymar both scored in the first half. A pulsating, eventful encounter ended in irony. With Neymar dismissed, Edinson Cavani was free to crash home a free-kick in injury time to equalise. A month earlier, Neymar’s histrionics over Cavani impinging on what he saw as his responsibility had granted him sole charge of dead balls.
Manager of the season: Christophe Pélissier, Amiens
Two years ago, Amiens scraped promotion from France’s semi-pro third tier, the Championnat National, finishing third behind Strasbourg and Orleans. A year later they were a place and a division higher and on their way to Ligue 1. In 2017-18, Pélissier managed his greatest achievement: 13th place in the top flight with the league’s smallest budget. Their defence, virtually unchanged from the third division, was the third best in Ligue 1. Incredible.
Signing of the season: Neymar, PSG
For “season” read “century”. Although Neymar’s first, and hopefully not only, season in Ligue 1 was exhilarating and frustrating in equal measure, the interest and investment it has generated in French football has ignited the entire division. Foreign investors are ready to support Nantes and St Étienne among others this summer, money which may not have emerged otherwise. Neymar’s legacy may prove to be more than PSG’s obliterating the world record fee, whether he stays or not.
Neymar, the signing of the century. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images
Team of the season
Régis Gurtner, Amiens
Bouna Sarr, Marseille
Hilton, Montpellier
Marcelo, Lyon
Jordan Amavi, Marseille
Luiz Gustavo, Marseille
Lucas Tousart, Lyon
Florian Thauvin, Marseille
Nabil Fékir, Lyon
Neymar, PSG
Edinson Cavani, PSG
Subs: Anthony Lopes (Lyon), Prince Gouano (ASC), Ruben Aguilar (Montpellier), Tanguy N’Dombélé (Lyon), Memphis Depay (Lyon), Rony Lopes (Monaco), Karl Toko-Ekambi (Angers).
Save of the season: Steve Mandanda, Marseille 1-1 Angers
Some controversy still lingers over decision to give Mandanda Ligue 1’s official goalkeeper of the year award but he did regularly pull off the spectacular this season, with Marseille’s leaky defence forcing him into action more frequently than he would have liked. Against Angers early in the season, Romain Thomas appeared to have sent Mandanda the wrong way at a set-piece, but the keeper pulled off a stunning fingertip save, diving to his left to preserve a point at a time in the season when Marseille were yet to become the juggernaut seen in the run-in.
Celebration of the season: Nabil Fékir, Saint-Étienne 0-5 Lyon
It’s always a fiery occasion when these two regional rivals meet, but Fékir ensured there was no love lost after scoring Lyon’s fifth and final goal against the 10 men of Saint-Étienne. After beating Stéphane Ruffier, he strode over to the home end, stripped off his armband and held his jersey aloft in front of the supporters. Sainté had their revenge in a 1-1 later in the season, but Fékir’s hubris was one of the defining moments of the season, increasing his cult status in Lyon and becoming even more hated at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Best tifo: Roazhon Park, Rennes 1-2 Lyon
Referencing the cult TV series Breaking Bad, Rennes’ massive image of Walter White was superb. The hosts were unable to secure the desired result but their fans’ enthusiasm serves as a fine example of the creativity and passion for the game often on display in western France.
Worst social media gaffe: Bordeaux’s Brazilians
Bordeaux’s young winger, Malcom, is undoubtedly very skilled on the pitch, but he is not so good at considering the potential ramifications of his actions on social media. Bordeaux’s 2-0 defeat at Caen in January was their seventh in eight matches, including a painful elimination from the Coupe de France by amateur side Granville. The youngster’s video of him and some of his team-mates laughing and joking after the defeat enraged the club’s fans, with no small amount of justification.
Malcom: better on the pitch than on social media. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images
Most menacing chant: Lille 1-1 Montpellier
“If we go down, you will go down,” chanted Lille’s pitch-invading supporters following their draw with Montpellier in early March. Their cries were directed at owner Gérard Lopez, whose transfer policy had left the club’s top-flight status in doubt, and in this case, despite Lille’s eventual survival, the moment remains an entirely frightening reminder of how closely intertwined violence can be with football in France.
Refereeing blunder of the season: Tony Chapron
The official referee of the season award was not handed out at this month’s glitzy ceremony in Paris as its recipient was to be Tony Chapron, who has been suspended for three months after a bizarre incident in PSG’s 1-0 win over Nantes in January. As PSG counter-attacked the Nantes defender Diego Carlos, in chasing back to defend, accidentally clipped Chapron’s heel. Much to everyone’s amazement, the referee swivelled around and aimed a kick at Carlos as he fell, before sending off the defender. A three-month ban for Chapron was perhaps a little lenient. His fellow officials have rallied around their disgraced colleague in a show of solidarity but he is expected to retire.
Tony Chapron sends off Nantes defender Diego Carlos. Photograph: Vincent Michel/Icon Sport via Getty Images
Brawl of the season: Marseille 2-3 Lyon
Another unexpected storyline of this season was the gusto with which the sleeping-giant Olympico derby between Marseille and Lyon returned. Memphis Depay’s late header gave Lyon a brilliant 3-2 win at the Vélodrome in March, but the drama was far from over. The aftermath began as Lyon defender Marcelo left the field, taunting Marseille fans with his No6 shirt, the number of points Lyon had taken from Marseille in this league campaign. It ended with a brawl in the tunnel that involved dozens, including Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas. Adil Rami had to be restrained from attacking Marcelo, whose wife jumped to his defence in a bizarre series of Snapchat stories.
Surprise of the season: Nolan Roux, Metz
Ligue 1 is full of forwards with less than impressive goal records. The continued employment of these wayward strikers remains a mystery. None have been more fortuitous than Nolan Roux. Despite being a regular for a number of sizeable Ligue 1 clubs, including Lille and St Étienne, 30-year-old Roux had never hit double figures. To say his tally of 15 goals for bottom club Metz is a “surprise” is something of an understatement. With promoted Reims already keen on the Frenchman, Roux seems to have, somehow, bought himself another year in France’s top flight.
Failed transfer of the season: Ibrahim Amadou
Given the disastrous season Lille have experienced, their players could be forgiven for wanting out. Nevertheless the sight of Lille captain Ibrahim Amadou turning up at Crystal Palace, Peter Odemwingie style, on the final day of the winter transfer window seemed more than a little desperate. A €14m bid had been submitted but, beholden by a transfer ban on incoming players, Lille were reluctant to sell and Amadou left London as the window shut, hood up and empty-handed.
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