This week French newspaper L’Equipe have run a feature about the ‘Heroes of Euro 2016’, picking out personalities who, in one way or another, played a big part in the tournament.
Will Grigg was featured on Wednesday, despite not getting on the pitch, Rui Patricio took Thursday, rightfully there after winning the tournament, and Friday sees Moussa Sissoko.
L’Equipe say the then Newcastle United midfielder was France’s best player in the final, and they point out he didn’t know what a disaster of a season he had waiting for him at Tottenham.
Sissoko went on holiday happy. The French newspaper say he’d just enjoyed a ‘remarkable’ two and a half seasons at Newcastle United and wasn’t tarnished by relegation on a personal level, but fans of the Premier League newcomers would likely feel their jaw drop at such a suggestion.
Not great in his final year, as Newcastle were relegated, Sissoko was finding his reputation, at the least good side of it, entirely built upon his national career. To suggest he was ‘remarkable’ in that final season is a complete rewrite of history.
After his holiday, it’s explained that Sissoko returned to Newcastle United to train alone under huge pressure from the club’s leaders, presumably including Rafael Benitez, to stay and aid a quick return to the Premier League.
L’Equipe say Sissoko was really popular at Newcastle, hence the wish for him to remain, and point out fans singing “He’s magic, you know, You’ll never get past Sissoko” from early on in the player’s Newcastle career.
But, despite all this, Newcastle wanting the player, and the fans being in awe, Sissoko didn’t appear completely stainless after relegation, and it took a while for a transfer to come off.
Tottenham Hotspur got the business done in the end, seeming to want Sissoko largely because Everton did, and the rest is history. Or a rewrite of history for L’Equipe.
