Charles N’Zogbia’s great early season form for Newcastle United has at last been rewarded with a call-up for the French U21s squad.
Charles has been named in the squad for the upcoming qualifiers for the 2009 European U21 Championships, against Wales in Grenoble on Friday and away to Malta in Valetta a week on Wednesday.
Certainly his inclusion will come as no surprise to Newcastle fans, who have seen Charles in dazzling form so far this season.
Charles N’Zogbia – fabulous performances for Newcastle from the young Frenchman
The honor is good reward for a sparkling start to the season by N’Zogbia, who as we know finished last season very much in the dumps under former manager Glenn Roeder.
But showing some good character and personal help from the Newcastle captain Geremi, Charles has played some of his best football ever at Newcastle this season. He has already scored 2 goals for Newcastle – from the left back position – and scored Newcastle’s first competitive goal under Sam Allardyce, when he opened the scoring in the 3-1 win at Bolton.
His goal against Middlesbrough was a tremendous effort and no doubt that must have got in front of the French Under-21 selectors. It will be interesting to see where he plays for the French team (we expect him to get his first cap because of the great form he is in) since he is comfortable at left-back, left-wing or center-midfield.
It’s just great that Charles is getting the recognition he deserves and we’re sure his escapades for France in the next couple of weeks will be closely followed by the Newcastle faithful. It just so happens that Charles’ appearance for Newcastle against Wigan on Saturday was his 100th ever for Newcastle. We hope there’ll be many more appearances for the black and whites from the rejuvenated Frenchman.
Well done Charles. Comments very welcome.
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21 comments so far
Callum
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:02 PM
Comment #1Probably been our best player all season although i know the likes of Rozenhal, Taylor, Harper, Milner have also started the season good.. wait a minute, most if not all the team has 😀
Ed Harrison
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:04 PM
Comment #2Callum – exactly 😀
Chris
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:15 PM
Comment #3Zog certainly deserves a international call-up. He’s an intelligent player and very skillful. Another international player in our team.
Dingo
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:35 PM
Comment #4go on Zog…. just goes to show that GR had no man management skills at all. He must have been school as Ruud Gullit!
Bill F
Sep 3, 2007 at 2:59 PM
Comment #5It’s Great for Zog and Newcastle for many reasons, it lets other players see the we are not a dead end for their chances, it proves they do not need to be in Europe and makes for greater team confidence.
Darran Shaughnessy
Sep 3, 2007 at 3:25 PM
Comment #6Go on the Zog!
Lets not forget to thank Sir Bobby’s for his vision in finding this gem in the first place.
Who knows there might be a Sir Zog in 10 years time. Keep up the good work.
Soren
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:03 PM
Comment #7A fully deserved call-up. He has a very bright future ahead of him. Won’t be many years till we see him on the France A-squad.
Gallacher the Horse
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:05 PM
Comment #8Callum, you are quite right. Infact I’m going to stick my neck out and say every player has played really well so far! The way we’ve performed in every game apart from Hull (we must have had our bootlaces tied together that match) has been very encouraging. The fact that comments on these boards have picked out one or two occasional errors is because they are noticable in a vastly improved standard of play. When was the last time some one wrote that a player played badly for all, most or even a quarter of the game. So far, the days of some players being slated for 90 minutes of poor effort – Bramble, Dyer and others – seem to have gone. Who’d imagined it!
big pea ov the weab
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:12 PM
Comment #9like av been saying he is the best young player in the premiership bar non
rich
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:35 PM
Comment #10how old is zog now? hes still well young and hes played for the mighty toon 100 times, thats an amazing feat in itself.
hopefully when hes 28 and in his prime hell be making his 500th appearance for us 🙂
if we can keep the likes of Barca & Real Madrid away.
Steve
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:35 PM
Comment #11@gallacher – I imagined it before every game but was usually quickly brought to reality once the game had started 🙂
Nice to see us looking very solid at the back rather than the panic defending that made you think the opposition were going to score everytime they attacked (usually thwarted by Given) – once the team gel together and we get Barton back we should be fairly formidable and should get top six this season, maybe even top four if we steer clear of injuries
Ed Harrison
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:55 PM
Comment #12Rich – Zog turned 21 in June – we got him 3 years ago when he was 18 – Bobby Robson.
Lamesley Mag
Sep 3, 2007 at 4:58 PM
Comment #13Well done, a well deserved call up …..
Wonder if he’ll play fullback or on the wing, as he’s a star in the making and so versatile for such a young person!
Bob
Sep 3, 2007 at 5:54 PM
Comment #14Good job, Zoggy!
Great signing by Sir Bobby Robson….
AndyW
Sep 3, 2007 at 8:46 PM
Comment #15Does anyone else wonder what language the back four will speak now? Beye, Rozenhal, Cacapa (all played in France), N’Zogbia, Geremi french-speakers. Spanish – Geremi, Cacapa, Enrique all speak Spanish.
Given and Harper are going to wonder what the hell is going on!
Maybe they will all have to learn Geordie.
geordie_jordan
Sep 4, 2007 at 2:34 AM
Comment #16Cacapa’s mother language is portugues i believe andy…..
steve
Sep 4, 2007 at 7:31 AM
Comment #17Whats his mother got to do with it ?
Marguerite
Sep 4, 2007 at 9:23 AM
Comment #18Well done Zog, no more than you deserved.
Better still just seen that he has signed a new deal with us which will keep him at SJP till 2012.
secretzone
Sep 4, 2007 at 9:26 AM
Comment #19steve: that is to say cacapa’s 1st language(mother tongue) is portugues =)
Marguerite
Sep 4, 2007 at 9:27 AM
Comment #20Ed – it is definite, showing on the NUFC.co.uk web. GREAT NEWS
ChrisL
Sep 4, 2007 at 2:05 PM
Comment #21How old is ‘The Zog’ now? (i.e. how many years has he got left of U21?)