Doggedly, the 27-year-old Parisian has refused to give up the ghost, describing his summer transfer from Middlesbrough to Fulham as a “new step to get me closer to the French team”. He did not mean geographically, either. No, this French defender, who almost declared for Ireland, despite playing the game in a distinctly British manner (five sendings-off in five seasons in the Premiership, reinforced by a heap of yellow cards, conveys a commitment that could be classically parochial), is sure about his future, though he is realistic, too. “Of course, [being called up by France] will depend on the results we get [at Fulham]. If we’re doing well, it’ll be easier to get in the national team.”
Louis Saha, for one, found this impossible (within days of moving out of Fulham to join Manchester United, the 28-year-old striker was finally named in the French squad). Steed Malbranque, the mercurial midfield player, is another whose ambitions are not being satisfied at Craven Cottage, hence his desire to leave on a free transfer at the end of this season. But for Queudrue, it is clear and simple. “It will be easier at Fulham because there are more journalists,” he said, smiling, though the French press tend to gravitate towards north London and the citadel that is Arsenal, not way out west to drop in on the Cottagers.
Still, for all his quirks, it is impossible not to like Queudrue. To the women on Teesside he was a heart-throb, a pin-up, while the men of Middlesbrough admired him from the outset for his passion, the hunger with which he played, even his recklessness. “You’re reminding me?” he quipped, laughing when the subject of his disciplinary record was raised. “I haven’t been sent off in the last year and a half. If I can maintain this level of discipline, I will be all right.”
Ever ebullient, his natural optimism even permeated his thoughts on Fulham’s opening match of the season today against Manchester United. “They are just like us. They have two arms, two legs, they’re no different and maybe this is a good time to play them: early,” he suggested. “They won’t quite be match-fit yet and they won’t have got to play much together. A lot of them are international players who would have been playing for their national team last week, so sooner is better maybe.
“But these are the challenges you want to take on in football. If you can prove yourself against these guys, it helps you. I wish I could play them every week. Yes, they are all top players but this doesn’t intimidate me — it inspires me. When Wayne Rooney is having a good day it’s hard, maybe impossible, to catch him. He has tremendous pace, superb range of passing, he makes intelligent runs into dangerous areas and he has players around him who know how to deliver the ball to get the very best out of him. But on a bad day he can lose his temper and this can help the opposition.
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“You can’t just focus on one player, however. Manchester United have many dangerous players. Cristiano Ronaldo has the fastest, cleverest feet in the game. What you have to do is watch the ball, not his feet. Ryan Giggs is not as tricky but he has great pace, skill and overall quality. If you were just to focus on one player, the others would hurt you. But what’s better than testing yourself against the very best?” It was precisely for this attitude that Chris Coleman offered him a four-year deal this summer, paying Middlesbrough an undisclosed fee. “He’s got a good presence on the pitch, he talks very well and he knows the game,” said the Fulham manager. “Franck’s also a gifted player with great skill and I know that he will make a difference to our back line. In his first game for us [a pre-season friendly against Real Madrid] he was outstanding. He’s going to be a tremendous signing.”
Queudrue’s inner steel was forged in the smouldering environment of the southeast suburb of Paris where he first played football for Moissy-Cramayel. “It was the biggest club in the district for young boys,” he recalled. “Players move to Moissy from all the smaller teams. That’s why they end up with all of the trophies.”
The youngsters who stood out were almost guaranteed to walk into a leading club. At 15, Queudrue joined the youth set-up at RC Lens and, after signing professional terms in 1999, he had three seasons in Le Championnat before joining Middlesbrough. Initially, he came to the Premiership on a season-long loan but Steve McClaren recognised his quality and, for a fee of £2.5m, made the deal permanent.
“It was hard at first because I was over here on my own while my wife Ismerie, who was pregnant, stayed in France,” he said, though he quickly overcame his homesickness when Ismerie moved to Teesside with their daughter Lillie. In two of the past three seasons he picked up the Community Player of the Year award from Boro supporters. Hugely influential in their winning of the Carling Cup in 2004, he was part of the team that contested the Uefa Cup final last season but he knew this game would be a kind of requiem, for his time at the club had reached a natural end.
“When you are five years at a club you start to become a bit, not lazy, but you don’t force yourself in the same way. You become relaxed and I didn’t want this comfort zone to develop around me,” he said. “I wanted a new challenge and Fulham is a fresh club, a club that wants to grow over the coming years. We have the right manager to do this and a good chairman [Mohamed al-Fayed, who has invested more than £170m into the club]. We’re looking to finish in the top 10 and that would be a good achievement. The bigger players here all want to achieve not just in the short term but in the long term. We really want to build something here.”
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Malbranque’s intransigence does not reflect this ethos, so Coleman has decided that the club’s best player will have no place in his team this season, even if the decision costs him his job. “I’m totally aware that it could,” the manager acknowledged, “but I still won’t pick Steed Malbranque. We’ve offered him a long-term deal that is lucrative, one of the best in the club’s history, but he’s not interested. What he wants to do is see out his contract and walk away for nothing at the end of the season and we have invested too much in Steed to allow that to happen.”
The exodus of talent is a familiar theme at Fulham. Saha and goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who followed the Frenchman out of Craven Cottage last season, will provide telling reminders of this today. But Queudrue is defiant. “I want to achieve with Fulham and if I do, playing against top teams like Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, it will also help my international claims,” he said. One could only imagine the response of a certain Cork man called Keane, if this aspiration was uttered too near to him.
TV MATCH
Man Utd v Fulham
Today, Pay-per-view. 1pm, kick-off, 1.30pm