Mastering the Art of Attack...Franck Ribery

Two weeks ago German football power house Bayern Munich taught Portuguese football team Sporting Lisbon a painful lesson about Champions League knock out stages. The Germans virtually ended their opponents European title hopes with a whopping 5 goals in their first leg meeting. This dismantling had much to do with the mesmerizing attacking display of Munich's French attacking wing man Franck Ribery. He contributed with two beautiful goals as well as executing a series of tricks before floating the ball in the path of his teamate Toni for a beautiful goal.

At 5 ft 7 inches with an athletic frame, Ribery is a perfect example of the modern attacking midfielder. He uses his athletism to run along the flanks and trouble defenders with his magical footwork that includes step overs and paceful dribbles. He also has perfected the art of passing and uses his football intelligence to execute low or high passes that service frontmen with opportunities on goal. The magical foot work sometimes opens up the opportunity for him to run in on defenders and take shots on goal and if you witnessed his first goal in the game against Lisbon you would understand how valuable his goal scoring technique is to the success of Bayern.

Ribery was born in Boulongne, France and spent his early football career moving across Europe at various clubs. He did not become recognized until he moved from Turkish club Galatasaray to French club Marseille. Marseille is known for harnessing the talents of French starlets such as Drogba, Cisse and Nasri. The team was known to promote entertaining attacking football and Ribery fit in providing assists and the odd goal. He joined Marseille in 2005 and spent two seasons. He made 60 appearances and scored 11 goals. His performances earned him a spot on the French international team and he began to get attention from big clubs in other leagues across Europe.

Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger was one of his biggest admirers and contacted Marseille on his availability. Wenger however lost interest in the pursuit when Marseille decided to place a large price for the players transfer. German giants Bayern Munich then took the opportunity to buy him for 25 million pds. Ribery immediately made an impact on the clubs performances. The German club utilized him as an attacking midfielder that dismantled defenders with beautiful skill to set up goals and take shots.

He suffered a number of injuries and his presence was immediately missed with Munich losing alot of it attacking prowess. In 08 he contributed to the club's dominance of the German football winning the Bundesliga and two German cup competitions. So far he has made 60 appearances for Munich and has scored 17 times. However the stats fail to recognize his contribution in the build up to countless of goals in his Munich career. Rumours are now spreading in the media that Ribery could be ready to move on to another challenge in another part of Europe. The likes of Manchester Utd and Barcalona have been rumoured to be probable destinations. Ribery however made public his intentions to stay at Munich until his contract expires in 2011. He did state though that he is attracted to the type of football played in England and Spain and could see himself at another major club after his contract is up.

Ribery is an extraordinary talent that has been hailed the next Zidane and I believe that we can expect more great performances for him on both the Club and international level. His movement on and off the ball is sublime. His football intelligence and athletism allows him to master the art of moving forward. His only weakness seems to be that he is prone to injury and spends extended periods of his career on the injury table. With Bayern almost certain to move into the next round of the Champions League knock out stages we should expect the French man to test his skills against his peers in Europe.