In fact, the moves were forced more by contract wrangles and the financial problems of his clubs than failings on the part of Rib?.He was a great success at Galatasaray, where the fans called him "Ferraribery" for his speed. On the pitch, he has all the problems worked out while others are still pondering People think that he's thick but that's pure stupidity He is anything but. He has a practical intelligence, like all the great players."Rib?'s undeserved reputation for being not too bright goes back to his expulsion from the Lille football academy - by Vandamme - in 1999. He was kicked out not because of his football skills but because he refused to try in the normal school-work which Lille - like other French clubs - insisted upon.

He also fought like a cat with the other kids.Another early coach, Jose Pereira, says: "Even a street lamp would have seen that Franck was a very good player but you had to watch him like a pan of milk on the boil. He was a kid who had grown up in the street." He was actually brought up, not in the street, but like a whole generation of French youngsters, at the foot of a dilapidated block of flats. He has now taken over the departed Zinedine Zidane's position in the France team as the wandering playmaker, just behind the strikers.Pursued post-Germany by Lyon and by Arsenal, Rib? remained reluctantly at Marseilles. He is the main reason why OM (second in La Ligue to OL) have exceeded modest expectations this season.At club and national level, he has revealed a new dimension to his game: intelligence and cunning, as well as skill and aggression. Like Didier Drogba, he is not so much a product as a reject of the prolific youth academy system of the large French clubs. His route to the top took him on a detour via the French equivalent of the Nationwide Conference, and into the Turkish league with Galatasaray.Even before he went to Turkey, he had become a devout Muslim, converting to the religion of Wahiba, his French wife of Moroccan origin.

Rib?'s first professional coach says that he always knew better - even though he fired him as a 16-year-old.Jean-Luc Vandamme, who brought him to Lille's youth academy at 13 in 1996, said: "Franck has great anticipation He analyses three times faster than others. What fan, or manager, could ask for more? Some people in the French game had assumed that Rib? was mostly a head-down, headstrong footballer, good at provocative dribbles and easily provoked himself. He impressed in Germany as an exuberant winger or striker, ready to dribble or pass his way through the opposition. He raises his hands to Allah before every match: something that goes down fine in Istanbul or Marseilles but was less appreciated during his brief periods in Metz and Brest.Until last summer Rib? had not played for France.