Since he doesn't have his own thread here in the players section I decided to open this one. And after the other night's game I really feel that we have something special on our hands here.

This is a video of him against Lyon, Rennes won 4 - 1 but it is a shame that his goal isn't in this video

Gourcuff: Rennes - Lyon: 4 - 1

Look at how he ran circles around the French champions, and the team that gave us a really hard time in the CL

And this is a video on youtube that dst found

Gourcuff - Youtube.com

And look at his amazing pass to Seedorf before he made Inzaghi's assist for the first goal against Lecco

Lecco - Milan

Not to mention his amazing goal against Toulouse

Rennes - Toulouse

He has great skills and he is in the greatest club, he is going to be great in a few years.

Yes he is at a great club

thanx for the videos

yeah we could really make something out of this guy

thanks for the video's
if u get any more but them on good man

wow!! this guy has got everything
nice acurate passes, scores sweet goals
takes free kicks very well and nice dribbles
oh! we obviously sighned a champion, a super star

Bird's Eye View Of 06-07 Stars

Sheridan Bird swears these five players will rock your world next season. They're not all in Italy though so he might be completely wrong. We suspect that he is, but here goes anyway...


SERGIO AGUERO
Do you like Leo Messi? You probably do. His trickery, speed on the ball and close control are a pleasure to watch. This season, fans of La Liga will have another small Argentine dribbler to cherish in the form of ex-Independiente star Aguero. A former team-mate of Messi's in the Argentine youth sides, two-footed Sergio will be wearing the stripes of Atletico Madrid this season, and is another classic Tango attacker in the Saviola, Tevez and Messi mould.


YOANN GOURCUFF
AC Milan beat off a host of other European clubs to secure the signing of the former Rennes number 10. An attacking central midfielder highly reminiscent of Zidane for his height, build and movement, he has a wonderful shot and weighs in with plenty of goals. He is also very effective running into the area to pick up scraps and pull-backs and has a right foot of immense power and accuracy. Bought with an eye on the future, he could be a very useful
addition to the Rossoneri squad and may even break into the first team this year.


DANIEL VAN BUYTEN
Four years ago he was winning rave reviews in the Marseilles defence and scoring crucial goals in Europe. Then it all went a bit off the boil and the Belgian giant struggled for form. In a short spell in the Premiership at Manchester City he rarely looked happy, but after a successful period with German outfit SV Hamburg, he is back to his best. Now DVB seems set to form a rock -olid yet ball-playing central defensive partnership with Lucio at
Bayern Munich after having left Hamburg for the Bundesliga champions this summer.


ANTONIO CASSANO
Once, this rascal from the Puglia region of Italy was regarded as the saviour of calcio and scored goals which earned comparisons with the likes of Roberto Baggio and even Diego Maradona. These days he is mocked in Spain for being fat and lazy, and had to watch his ex-Azzurri pals win the World Cup from his living room. As luck would have it, he now has his football father Fabio Capello with him at Real Madrid, and perhaps he can get his career back on track. At Roma Capello managed to coax the best out of Cassano, and who is to say he won't do the same in the Spanish capital?


DANIELE DE ROSSI
Returning home after an interesting World Cup which included that ridiculous elbow on Brian McBride and then a ridiculously well-taken penalty in the final, Roma's De Rossi has the ability and balls to help his club win their first title since 2001. On the same career trajectory and in the same bracket as Steven Gerrard, the blonde midfielder is good enough to make himself a Champions League legend and future captain of Italy. Watch his development continue this season.

I hope he lives up to his reputation

He played last night with France U21 and did well. He scores a goal ( but it was a gift from J.Briant ). He entered the game at the 60e minute and scores at 83e.

So i think he's a realy great hope for milan, and I hope he can play sometimes.

He'll play. I believe.

He's young and quality. Hope he performs great this first season in Serie A.

From what I've heard of the kid he's extremely talented, but I've only seen him a couple of times, so I think I'll wait till some games of the upcoming season are played until I can really say how much potential he has.

the kid has great potential ... he'll certainly will realise his potential in Milanello; lucky him he's didn't go to The Bog next door, it would have ruined his life!!!!

anyway ... the kid has already have a thread of his own!!!great!!!

I like the kid!!

Good Luck Yoann!!!!!!!!!

I would like to see both him and Ricky behind Gila, what a trident

Yeah I would like to see something like that, but unfortunately for us the rule is 2 strikers only

I think that he will definately develop into a star in the future, but Carlo needs to give him playing time, and I'm sure he will give him just that, you can see that he will become a Carlo favourite, he already has a soft spot for him

The thing is that we haven't got a creative striker, all our strikers are 'fox in the box' type strikers. With Ricky and Yoann orchestrating things we could leave the strikers to do their job and not worry about creating. Whether carlo has the balls to play this formation remains to be seen.

If we will ever play with the Xmas tree scheme this season, Kakà and Seedorf will play behind the striker, while Gourcuff and Gattuso on the flanks. Gourcuff is not an attacking midfielder, he's a central midfielder.

what do you mean he's a central midfielder ... what are his duties??? he's certainly not a holding midfielder and neither is he a winger. He's an attacking midfilder, he's a #10 that's why people say he's the new Zidane or whatever the do say!!!!

We cant really tell what type of player he is till he gets a chance .. Carlo could place in a possision just as he did for Pirlo, and change the way Gourcuff (still cant get his name right w/o double checking) plays.

He deffinatly has potential, but I don't know about the next Zidane .. I heared that b4, but IMO you never can tell till you actually see him play. At Rennes was one thing, but at Milan it's a whole different ball park.

I agree ... but he's definetely not a holding midfielder !!!

It's a total waste playing Seedorf behind the striker. Kaka and Gourcuff can dribble with the ball and can also cross while Seedorf cannot. Seedorf is better in his left sided midfield position.

YKTS dst

Seedorf is miles better than Gourcuff, how can you say that?



I'm not saying he's a defensive midfielder. He's more of an organizing midfielder, something like Pirlo, but not with his defensive duties. He's definitely not an attacking midfielder. Maybe in 2-3 years...

I don't think it comes with age!!!!

He is an attacking midfielder. He just needs to play regularly and adapt.

It does, especially when you're 19. As Tognaccini siad it himself, Gourcuff is a great talent but still developing physically. I don't think he's still ready for such an important duty. He needs to develop more, to become a complete player, like Ricky and Clarence.

ofcourse he's not a complete player ant not one much developed physically ... but what that has to do with what HE IS not WHAT HE CAN PLAY NOW???

he's an amf in France U21 isn't he??? that's what I'm talking about not if he's ready to play as such in Milan or not!!!!

Seedorf can't dribble and cross????? Come on. Seedorf imo is the classic #10 player, he can dribble, cross make amazing through balls and score.





This is what I have been mentioning a few times, you're right dst it doesn't come with age, but I think that he doesn't have the abiltiy yet to handle the tight marking that he will come up against, that's why I think for now he is better at playing in Seedorf's position.

I'm sure that once he get's the hang of how things work in serie A he will be able to play in the whole between the strikers

just remember when kaka came to milan, some of you could have said the same thing of him, and just look now, and the goal he did today to argentina

I still don't get you X-Offender ...

Look, for me, there are three things

[1. What we bought him for] = [2. What he is]
[3.What/how he can play now]

The things is that we bought him to play as an attacking midfielder. that's what he is (and what he played vs Red Star) whether he can play as such or not!!!!

It's like when you buy an unassebled furniture ... let's say a table OK!? when you take it out of the box it's just pieces till you make it a table. Unless you fit those pieces together it's not the table you wanna have .... but it's still a table you bought!!!!!

Not ready you say ... but that's what he is/was/wanna be!!!!

No, he didn't play as AM against Red Star. When he came in, we were playing with one striker, so he played next to Ambrosini and Gattuso, while Seedorf and Kakà were supporting Inzaghi.

MILAN: Dida; Cafu (78' Brocchi), Simic, Costacurta, Serginho; Gattuso, Pirlo ('80' Gourcuff), Seedorf; Kakà; Inzaghi, Gilardino (71' Ambrosini).

Kaka was much more known when he came to Milan.

he was Pirlo's sunsitution, he didn't take his place on the field!!!

he was known just cause the 2 goals he did in the league final, so if you want to hear about other similar case, look now to sobis

I didn'y say he took his place on the field. It was more like this:

Gattuso---Ambrosini---Gourcuff
----------Kakà----Seedorf---------

Many people talked about Kaka when he played on Brazil young team and his club even before those 2 goals. There was much higher hype about him than Sobis

I think it was more like this:


but anyway ... time will tell!!!!

Well, he was active only on the left flank, but yeah, time will tell.

hes just like Kaka. would he be able to bench Seedorf, like Kaka did Manuel, and then pair Kaka? i hope so

Very smart (clap,clap)......... That is exactly the comparison I see with him. If he is able to adapt to the flow of the Calcio then we've got a jewel on our hands that just needs guidance------look at KaKa.... Who do u think taught him everything about Seria A and the players?.... Rui.Costa ......watch him at Benifica and hes amazing...
(10)

I knew what he always wanted to do but sometimes ur fitness make u unable to always run passed defenders... and the pieces to the puzzle jus dont fit anymore.....

As for the comparison....he will be Seedorf's replacement(in the future) but is he gonna be better "only time will tell".....

HE SCORED THE FIRST GOAL TODAY AGAINST SLOVENIA

Any link?

NO SORRY...

Two goals in two matches for him, nice done!

Gourcuff has important debut. Milan have made a great signing. I think he is going to be next Zidane

yeah! his style is much like Zizou's. great signing.

Yoann Gourcuff ... really good debut for him ... he's got a lot more in his locker ... I can't wait to see it

Kaka has praised Gourcuff

Kaka has praised Yoann Gourcuff after the French youngster made a scoring start to his Milan career.

The French starlet netted against AEK Athens on Wednesday, when Milan dominated the Greeks 3-0 in their opening Group H match at the San Siro.

“Gourcuff is talented and intelligent – tonight we really enjoyed ourselves out there,” said Kaka (pictured) after the match.

“With these kind of players we can start a new cycle, this is exactly the attitude we need if we want this to be a great season,” continued the Brazilian international, who was also on target after converting a penalty.

“The arrival of these new players is very important for us, the Champions League is a special tournament for every one of us, but this year the championship is also interesting and the eight-point deduction is stimulating.

“AEK had a few chances before we scored the first goal, but we are all feeling well and are slowly finding our best physical condition – I trust we can do well.”

New signing Ricardo Oliveira was handed his first start for the Rossoneri after Carlo Ancelotti decided to leave Alberto Gilardino on the bench and the striker repaid the Coach for his trust.

“This is a high-quality squad, it’s nice to play with teammates like this,” said the former Betis man.

“It’s hard to lose when you have players like Kaka on your side, and the final result could have been even more severe,” added Oliveira, who was substituted for Clarence Seedorf in the closing stages.

“We won a very important match, as this wasn’t an easy game. Our physical conditions can only improve.

“But I will be on top form by the end of the week, and this year I can play well and score many goals.”

Milan Vice-President Adriano Galliani was radiant after the win and dismissed rumours suggesting Gilardino’s disappointment for not being part of the match.

“We played an excellent game, we couldn’t have started better,” said the club official to Sky Italia.

“Gilardino will play on Sunday, this is all planned. We have 24 good players on our side so the Coach is forced to choose every time, but our men know when their turn will come.

“We have an intense schedule ahead of us, with a match every three days, so everyone will have a chance to play. If we concentrate I think we can do very well.”

The Rossoneri now lead Group H, after the match between Anderlecht and Lille ended with a 1-1 draw.

Carlo praises youngster


Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti praised his much-changed line-up after their 3-0 win over AEK Athens, especially young Frenchman Yoann Gourcuff.

Gourcouff grabbed the second goal of the game after Filippo Inzaghi had put them ahead and before Kaka's penalty sealed the win.

Ancelotti made several changes for the match and said it was good to see strength in depth in his squad - especially with the well-though-of Frenchman Gourcouff.

"It was an important victory," said Ancelotti. "It confirmed for me the reliability of all the players at my disposal."

"It is great to see a player of his age (Gourcouff) play with such authority and confidence, he was an excellent signing by the club.

"It was a surprise for me. He made a really good impression tonight.

"He was a superb signing and we're all very happy."

AEK's Spanish coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer declined to criticise his side for their display, saying that they were faced with a tough task in Milan.

"Against a team like Milan, with all their experience and their famous ability to keep possession it is not just about what you can do.

"I didn't think we coped badly. At this level you have to remember the quality of opposition you are up against."

Sky.com