In what would go on to become the defining moment of his Bordeaux career, Yoann Gourcuff’s eventual goal of the season saw him spin and flick his way around a stumped PSG defence before finishing past Mickael Landreau for the third of Bordeaux’s four-goal rout against the Parisians. This was in January of the 2008/9 season, a campaign which saw a young on-loan Gourcuff lead the club to their first French title since 1999 and indisputably outperform anyone else in a playmaker role where he would go on to score 15 and assist 15 in all competitions. By all accounts, this was a breakthrough season. With weekly displays of his eye for the intricate pass and technical flair, it was not long before the Zidane comparisons were raised – and once they were, the hype around him grew emphatically. It was almost universally agreed by the media that this kid was, in fact, the new Zidane – a claim which was nonetheless understandable, given their similar skillset, position, and even height and build. Moreover, Laurent Blanc, then Bordeaux manager, had hailed Gourcuff’s ability to control the ball in tight spaces, while it was also being noted that ‘Le phénonème Gourcuff”s mannerisms on the pitch were very much akin to Zizou’s

At the end of the season, it was inevitable that Gourcuff would be one of the most coveted young players on the continent. While he did eventually make the safe choice in staying with Bordeaux for another season, and afterwards signing with a Lyon team still fresh from their 7 league titles, it wasn’t before fending off interest from Europe’s elite – the likes of Bayern, Arsenal and Real Madrid recognising the supreme talent that saw him named player of the season in 2009. Nevertheless, plastered with the moniker ‘Le Successeur’ by a nation desperate for an heir to Zidane, Gourcuff looked to have a beaming future laid out ahead of him.

‘Gourcuff to Rennes is edging closer’, the story broken by various sites this week, was the latest offering to come from this summer’s seemingly never ending Gourcuff rumour mill. Since duly leaving Lyon at the end of last season, the injury plagued midfielder has been reportedly contacted by a host of different clubs, from Ligue 1 and beyond, with teams recognising that beyond the injuries is the former golden boy of French football. Nevertheless, in 5 frustrating years at Lyon the ‘New Zidane’ tag has all but faded into nothing more than a reminder of what could have been. With flashes of brilliance few and far between, Gourcuff, once destined to be a shining light in French football, has had his career turn into a frustrating road peppered with setbacks at every turn.

The once-prodigy who looked set to take France back to the top has instead had a career filled to the brim with ‘what if’s and tainted by behaviour and fitness problems. Although his talent is still universally recognised, the last few years have seen him quite often come woefully short of any consistency – ‘He could and should have brought much more’ announced a defeated Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, longtime supporter of Gourcuff since his arrival at the club. Soiled by a failure to work with managers, attitude problems, the media’s romanticised vision of Gourcuff picking up on Zidane’s legacy had all but vanished.

While he had had problems throughout his time at Milan – Paolo Maldini himself spoke of his reluctancy to fully integrate and learn Italian straight away, lack of effort and tendency to show up late to training, while ‘egocentric’ was the word Carlo Ancelotti used to describe him – , his career in France began to take a sour turn after the Knysna France debacle at the 2010 World Cup. Coach Raymond Domenech went on to confess in a book after the incidents that he would have ‘really liked to give him a slap’ such was his perceived arrogance.

With the image of being the ‘good boy’ of the team, Gourcuff was reported to have had conflicts behind the scenes with his national team mates, notably Ribéry, who nevertheless went on to deny this. There were nevertheless claims that he failed to socialise with the rest of the group, and often ate alone. On the field, it was apparent that Gourcuff wasn’t clicking with the players around him, and eventually his tournament ended with an (undeserved) red card. While his reputation took a severe dent once the tournament had ended, the nature of the fiasco, which led to a culmination in national scandal and a political intervention, saw many more have theirs damaged beyond repair – notably Anelka with his insults towards the ever delusional Domenech and Evra in his role as the ringleader in the strike.

In spite of the public disgrace of these events, the factor which had the most significant impact on his career spiraling down was undoubtedly the often ridiculous injuries he sustained over his 5 year stay at Lyon. Gourcuff was injured 15 times for a total of 600 days on the treatment table – numbers reminiscent of a certain Abou Diaby. Gourcuff soon became a figure of ridicule with his uncanny knack for nonsensical injuries and generally being made of glass – amid the toe nail injuries, the injury while walking his dog and the countless protractor injuries.

Five torrid years at Lyon finally culminated in him walking off in a match against Nice where he had again injured himself. Without a word of warning to the coach, he simply walked off – not even a wave for the fans – into the tunnel, never to be seen again in a Lyon shirt. This was a moment that perhaps summed up Yoann Gourcuff – isolated in his own world, a talent that never quite overcame the swarm of injuries and obstacles in his career.

The logical step, although confirming his fall from grace, was to return to one of his former teams in the hope of reigniting the spark that first saw him explode on the national stage. The prospect of returning to Rennes first reared its head in the media in March and has continued at various intervals throughout the summer. All the while rumours of his return to the team with which he won the title were heated up when he began to train there, only for the speculation to be shut down by the club president, Triaud: ‘Gourcuff has done some training at his request, but there is nothing between us’. Still without a club well into the summer, the links continued – Marseille, stripped of its main attacking assets over the summer, were inevitably involved despite the fact that Gourcuff had played for Bordeaux, while Montpellier links were eventually dismissed by owner Louis Nicollin.

Despite claims by representative Didier Poulmaire that Gourcuff was adamant on staying in France, the rumour mill soon began to link him to clubs abroad. While he was familiar with being wanted abroad, the caliber of clubs had changed this time. Aside from the inevitable Arsenal links, it was the likes of Flamengo and Watford, two clubs not often mentioned in the same breath, who were being tipped to sign the free agent.

However, should he return to Rennes at the end of a drawn out transfer saga, Gourcuff will be returning to a familiar setting, one that first saw him develop as a player. While getting his battered career back on track is still very much a long shot – predictably, he is currently injured and working to get his fitness levels back – but the lowered expectations should ease off the pressure which had been heaped upon him when he first broke out at Bordeaux.

That Goal: