Season 5 for Olympique Rouen starts off with an early big victory, followed up with another yearly spending spree.


Olympique Rouen got T11 Cup play underway only moments after the official start of the new season. There game against the lvl 8 opponents from Djibouti was the very first tie to get underway and in spite of a tense back and forth for the first half an hour seeing the match all even at 1-1.

In the 31st minute Rouen would seize the momentum and never relent, scoring twice in less than 2 minutes. The first came after a giveaway by the opposition CB allowed ST Wilson Sanchez to go in 1v1 against the keeper then calmly slide it in the net for what would be the winner. In the 33rd minute Chilean winger Sebastian Rocha would also open his account for the season after taking a sensational through ball from Omar Cardenas.

Only 3 minutes into the 2nd half it would again be the RW Cardenas making the play, this time on his own leaving his marker flat footed to create just enough space to place a beautiful strike into the far corner to increase the margin to 4-1. Just 6 minutes later it was another terrific pass from Cardenas this time setting up Les coqs gaulois all time leading scorer Mikkel Sorensen to complete a brace and end the scoring at 5-1.

It was a delightful result against the favored opponents who are 3 levels above Rouen in the ladder. They head out to the tiny African nation for the 2nd leg of the opening round today with a 4 goal advantage. The opposing manager blamed the lack of time to prepare for the match it having come so quickly after the schedule was announced but the excuse rang hollow as it was hardly a disadvantage that only his side had to deal with.



Following the match the club announced 5 new signings that each surpassed the previous record transfer fee for the club.

The first was 18 year old Argentine GK Cristian Cozzoni who was the most valuable player on the market and due to the position he plays it was little surprise that the bidding was intense and lasted a whopping 35 rounds while it also came at a steep cost of a massive $21.1M. It was nearly twice the official valuation of the player but team President and manager David Grizzle had this to say "We have been looking to solidify the position for the entire 4+ years this club has been competing. Cristian is by far the most promising young keeper we have had a chance to sign and we could not let the opportunity pass us by".

Cozzoni is expected to immediately get his crack at taking the starting job in the 2nd leg of the T11 cup prelim round and with his price tag it would have been more shocking to have him sitting on the bench. The teams willingness to not only sign a new GK but pay such a steep price was criticized by some members of the media and the fan base. Incumbent starter Maxence Honore performed well in his first season after being eased into the starting job last season at age 18. He allowed only 14 goals in 29 starts for the lvl 4 League and Champions League winners with an amazing 20 clean sheets in all competitions including 15 of his 19 league starts. Honore maintained an average rating of 6.689 in all competitions as well as a save % of 82.278%.

The temptation of a GK who is valued so high, coupled with Honore's slip in form at the end of the season proved to be too much for the club to ignore. Although they won the CL final, Honore put in his worst rated performance of the season in the match while also having 3/4 of his 6 rated matches in the last 5 league games.


The 2nd signing came at the other position that has seemingly always been in flux for Rouen. 18 year old Bulgarian RB Georgi Metodiev was also coveted by several other clubs but the bidding wasn't nearly as intense lasting only 4 rounds before ending at $10.9M, this time only slightly above his official valuation of $10.6M which after joining up with the team and beginning training immediately jumped to $11.2M which matched that of their first signing making them currently the co-most valuable players in club history for the time being.

Their 3rd pickup of the opening frenzy was 18 year old Cameroonian AM Stephane Ekwalla. The club got a relative bargain as the bidding process ended quickly at a cost of $9.18M, well short of his initial valuation of $9.9M. Ekwalla is 2 points shy of 6* status and has yet to join the club for training.

#4 of the evening soon followed in the form of Ekwalla's fellow countryman, 18 year old LB/CB Arthur Ebeye. Rouen for the 3rd time crossed the $10M plateau, this time by a mere $100k which was $300k short of his initial valuation of $10.4M. He was the 3rd most valued player on the market this season making this the astounding 3rd time in 4 years that the club has signed the top 3 available young players on the market on opening day of the transfer window. Ebeye also quickly earned his 6* status pushing him up to a $10.9M valuation.

Ebeye is expected to push for the starting job at LB in spite of the continued quality performances of the teams elder statesman (at only age 24) Dor Zilberman. Zilberman has been a rock at LB the past 3 seasons but questions remain about whether he grow enough to keep up with the teams rapid climb up the football ladder. He finished last season as the only starting outfield player rated less than 7*. Getting to that level this season would be that much harder.


Finally the final signing came in the form of 18 year old Swiss right winger Anthony Moric. While he was the player with the lowest initial valuation among the clubs signings he also is a full 4 points shy of reaching 6* status and thus has the potential to catch up or surpass some of the others when his training program kicks in. Moric was the only one of the 5 signings that went uncontested this season. It is looking like there is a possibility that the days of signing the top talent on the market uncontested in coming swiftly to a halt as the club jumps up divisions each season.

In the bottom 4 divisions clubs were not willing to break the bank for such young and unproved talent. How much of this seasons intensity came from promotion vs having the most valued talent coming at positions that are much harder to find is up for debate. Previous seasons saw the top players coming mostly from CM, CB, and ST. This season CM's of that caliber were not there and while CB was well represented and ST's were there to be found they were not the top dogs this go round.



Finally the club had to fund the spending spree. Once again it was a combination of their wealthy ownership group contributing their own funds as well as sales of players deemed expendable or who had not lived up to expectations.

The club fist sold Greek DM Antonis Lemonis for a fee of $5M. Lemonis spent only one season at the Stade de Rouen appearing in 4 games and while he provided solid (if not spectacular) play he plays a position that the club rarely uses any longer following the breakout season of CM Christian Segreste who scored 22 goals last season the club dispatched of an out an out holding midfielder and instead rely on a box to box CM with the ability to join the attack as well as the pace and skill to track back and help shut down opposing AM's.

Next to the chopping block was RM Sherom Kasami. The 19 yr old failed in his managers desire to move him further up the pitch into a RW role and never could get on the pitch. He was also one of last seasons bigger signings but with the addition of Ekwalla who is comfortable in an attacking role and while he hasn't been deployed out on the right side yet in his career the club is much more confidant in his ability to adjust to the change, providing cover for both AM Mauro Ezen and RW Omar Cardenas.

Reserve GK Berkin Isyapan shortly after departed the club for a reported fee of $3.13M. The 22 year old made only one start last season and was made expendable with the signing of Cozzoni. The club does not keep 3 keepers on the roster and nobody in Rouen wanted to completely give up on Maxence Honore who still may end up the starter this season.

Also sold was 19 year old Argentine ST Cristian Bottaro who appeared in only 2 games for Rouen scoring one goal. While he has quite a bit of potential and certainly couldn't be called a bust the club already has not only 2 fully established starters at the position who have had back to back 30+ goal seasons but also has another youngster from Cameroon in the form of 19 year old Arthur Ngan who performed very well during the early season injury to Wilson Sanchez as well as providing a scoring punch off the bench when the team deployed 3 forwards later in games to give them an extra weapon. Ngan scored 10 goals and added 5 assists in 15 appearances.

Also the team has an U21 prospect at ST in the form of 18 year old Gregory Bengelloun who while currently a point shy of 4* has the potential to be outstanding, the club has not forgotten that about this time 3 seasons ago Omar Cardenas had the exact same rating, 3 seasons later he has scored over 60 goals for the club and is an indispensable part of the teams core.

Finally the last 2 completed sales came in the form of two little used reserves. The first, AM/RW T. Henry for a fee of $4.26, Henry appeared in 5 games with 2 goals and 2 assists but is not progressing as the club had hoped. Secondly was 20 year old RB Malik Efendi who started the last 4 matches for the club while earning MoM honors in his club debut. With the signing of Metodiev, the late return in form of the young Peruvian defender Agustin Garcia, and star CB Jason Goller having trained hard to learn to play RB where he is now comfortable there was no room for an player who can play only one position and who also does not have long term potential.

Still on the Transfer list is 19 year old Spanish WB Jose Martin. So far he has failed to attract an adequate offer although it is early in the season and WB is not a position that is used by the majority of teams. He does have a solid value of $5.6M and was originally signed in order to be converted to FB but became redundant with the signing of Ebeye and the increasing comfort of Silvano Ibarra at the position, Ibarra started training at LB last season as it became clear that he might not have a long term future at CB unless he is prepared to spend most of his time on the bench.


Finally there were two other players who were sold at the end of the season in order for the club to raise the initial $11M needed to bid on the top caliber players for lvl 5. Both were also part of last years signing crop which overall was not a very productive group but in spite of this fact the club was able to recoup most of the money spent on those who didn't stick.

First was one of the two big signings at this time last season from Ecuador LM Carlos Esteban Biojo. Biojo, like fellow wide midfielder Sherom Kasami did not acclimate to his intended new position further up the wing. Last seasons lack of natural LW/RW players of high caliber led to the dual experiment and when they played in their natural positions they were effective but neither performed well as forwards. With the system in place there is no room for anyone outside of CB who is not able to contribute offensively. All 6 of the teams starting non defenders scored at least 22 goals last season.

The other early departure was DM Paul Pariseau. Paul played fairly well in the 5 games he started in place of the injured Christian Segreste but his lone contribution offensively was a single assist and with the decision to pare down the roster size by not carrying any holding midfielders or wing backs it became an easy decision.

Fans have voiced their displeasure at the lack of French players on the squad. Last season the team carried 4, currently there is only 1 remaining French player and that is Honore, who it appears has lost his starting job at GK. The team is likely to sign their young academy product in ST Gregory Bengelloun but that would still leave only 2 national players, neither of which is projected to play very much. But with the game becoming far more globalized with the switch to multinational leagues without requirements for home grown players there is little incentive to do anything other than get the best players you can, regardless of nationality.