Bienvenue, Nicolas de Preville! After almost 15 years, a professional from France is finally lacing up his shoes again in the actually Francophile Palatinate. The 32-year-old newcomer brings a lot of footballing quality with him.
So now it’s done. Thomas Hengen, who traveled all over Europe and South America as a scout for various clubs for years, made his first foreign transfer as managing director of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. And in football Germany’s most popular shopping country. Last summer alone, 18 professionals were transferred from Ligue 1 to the Bundesliga, with more than 50 million euros in transfers to the neighbors. Among them were not even crackers like Corentin Tolisso (2017 for 41.5 million to Bayern Munich) or Ousmane Dembélé (2016 for 35 million to Borussia Dortmund).
No other country trains as many footballers at the top level as the French. This is proven not least by the recent successes of their national team. Germany’s leading football tactics nerd Tobias Escher is convinced that at the most recent World Cup, even the second guard of the 2018 world champion and 2022 runner-up would have made it into the semifinals. Instead, this reached Morocco, from whose squad a number of kickers were also trained in France. And in Germany? Do you prefer to look at the sporting and administrative management staff to see that the national team is no longer among the best in Europe and the world? Instead of considering what could be copied from the Grande Nation’s educational system for the country of poets and thinkers. And most importantly what to do in this direction.
Most recently without a contract due to relegation and knee problems
But what are we talking about international excellence here? This is supposed to be about a 32-year-old who was recently without a contract and just got a contract with the second division club from Kaiserslautern before the winter transfer window finally closed. But does that mean that Nicolas de Préville couldn’t do better than the House of Commons? After all, last season still played in Ligue 1 for FC Metz, who ended up being relegated. As a result, his contract was terminated, he was not valid for the second division.
That season, de Préville made 27 appearances, 24 of them from the start. He scored five goals and two assists. Here’s a proof of work from FC Metz’s game against Girondins Bordeaux, which ended 3-3. He marks a goal against his ex-club, which is always something special for a professional:
» To the video: Nicolas de Préville scores against his former club
The fact that there was no further engagement after the summer after the relegation was probably due to the knee injury that he sustained shortly before the end of the round. That doesn’t exactly make a 32-year-old attractive to potential buyers.
“Most valuable” new signing since Ruben Jenssen
Nicolas de Préville also has international experience. He was a French junior international, has five appearances in the U20 and one in the U23 team. He also featured in the Europa League for Girondins Bordeaux, the club he was on the ball for from 2017 to 2021. During this time he was even compared to Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s when this video was made, which documents his footballing qualities very nicely, especially when receiving and passing on balls:
» Zum Video: Nicolas De Préville vs. Nimes – “CR7 of Gironde?”
Bordeaux brought de Préville from OSC Lille in 2017. For a proud transfer fee of eight million euros. “Transfermarkt.de” currently estimates its market value at 1.8 million euros. Which, according to the portal, makes him “the most valuable newcomer” to FCK in ten years. Statistically anyway. The last player with a higher market value that Lautern signed was Ruben Jenssen, who was valued at 2.2 million euros at the beginning of the 2013/14 season.
This juggling of numbers sounds so cocky that it should now be scaled back: Whether this advance praise is justified will only be known when it is clear how much the now 32-year-old is still suffering from the knee injury from the summer. It is clear that he successfully completed the medical check before signing the contract, so one can assume that he will recover accordingly. Nevertheless, you have to show the player a little patience, FCK sports director Hengen told the “Rheinpfalz” emphasizes: His fitness is good, but de Préville just missed the complete preparation with the team, in addition to the lack of match practice since the summer. Nevertheless, Hengen says: “If he can only halfway achieve his potential, he will help us.” In Kaiserslautern, according to the assessments, the Frenchman, who is actually more talented and speaks little English and no German, has a loud voice “The Team” initially only signed for the duration of the second half of the season.
Matured in Reims, started at OSC Lille
Back to the previous career: In Lille, de Préville really rocked. 16 goals in a total of 37 competitive games, one template. In the 2016/17 season he played primarily as a ten-man, before him the Portuguese international Èder was active as a wedge forward, with whom he harmonized brilliantly. De Préville’s performance in the 3-0 win against FC Nantes in the season finale, in which he scored all three goals, was outstanding. Here is a cross-section of his goals that season:
» To the video: Nicolas de Prévilles Highlights 2016/2017 at OSC Lille
De Préville was an up-and-coming talent at Stade Reims from 2013 to 2016. 19 goals, 16 assists in 111 appearances. There is also a video from this time:
» To the video: goals and skills at Stade Reims
In total, Nicolas de Préville has made 273 appearances in Ligue 1 and made 69 appearances in Ligue 2. He scored a total of 63 hits and prepared 36 booths.
Tactically and technically top, with weaknesses to the rear
“Strong first contact, strong technique, clean passing game, plus good standards,” characterizes the football analysis portal “Global Soccer Network”. And further: “Anticipates very well, plays courageously, a lot of overview and creativity. Well trained tactically. Physically with a good start, and flexible.” However, his defensive behavior has weaknesses: “Afraid of defensive duels, weak positional play (defensive), expandable pressing release.”
The data portal “Sofascore” recorded and evaluated 44 of de Préville’s 63 hits. So he scored 36 with his right foot, six with his left, one with any other part of his body and only one (!) with his head.
One-to-one backup for Boyd? Not necessarily
All of this leads to the conclusion and the question: Exciting transfer, certainly, but is de Préville really the long-rumoured one-for-one alternative for assault tank Terrence Boyd? What you can read and see here sounds more like a replacement for Mike Wunderlich, who left for the winter break, and whose shirt number 28 the newcomer will take over right away. In this case, FCK would have even gotten younger with the 32-year-old, after all, Wunderlich is already 36 years old.
De Préville may not be a 100% Boyd backup. But if he has to represent him, he could offer himself across the entire width of the field, not only go steeply with passes from the depths, but also meet them, accept them and pass them on. As does Boyd, only de Préville shouldn’t be played quite as tall: he’s only 1.82 meters tall, two inches shorter than Boyd.
Incidentally, Nicolas de Préville is only the fourth French professional to sign FCK after a very long break. The last, ex-captain Mathieu Béda, left Betzenberg in 2008. Before that, Grégory Vignal and world champion Youri Djorkaeff temporarily laced up for the Red Devils. Since the Palatinate is considered to be extremely Francophile, there may well be more again. Appropriate quality provided, of course.
If you haven’t had enough of looking at his booths, here is a cross-section of hits from his career from 2013 to 2019:
» To the video: goals and skills at Reims, Lille, Bordeaux
Those: The betze is on fire
Further links on the topic:
– Center forward Nicolas de Préville becomes a Red Devil (FCK press release)
