The experienced French centre called time on his international career this week after a decade with Les Bleus, during which time he won 54 caps and a Grand Slam.

From the early days when rumours emerged of a teenage phenomenon coming through in the suburbs of Paris, Bastareaud has rarely been out of the limelight.

The cousin of French footballer William Gallas, Bastareaud was called up by France when he was still only 18 and playing amateur rugby for Massy.

That was in 2007, when he was due to be part of the French squad to fly to New Zealand for a summer tour. An injury in the Fédérale play-offs put paid to that and pushed back his debut a couple of years.

By 2009, Bernard Laporte had stepped down as France coach and it was his replacement Marc Lièvremont who gave Bastareaud a chance at the highest level.

His debut came in Paris in the Championship’s first-ever Friday night game, Les Bleus taking on a Welsh team who had won eight matches in a row in the Six Nations.

Despite trailing by ten points in the first half, France roared back for victory over the Grand Slam champions and Bastareaud had established himself in the side.

That summer, he was part of the French team that beat the All Blacks in New Zealand as they struggled to cope with his unique blend of size and power.

Of course, there have been downs to go with the ups, but by 2010, he was back in the France squad and enjoyed perhaps his most memorable period at Test level.

He was the fulcrum of the French team that won the Grand Slam, getting off to a flying start with two tries in an 18-9 victory away to Scotland.

The apotheosis came in Paris a week later, going head-to-head with Brian O’Driscoll and joining the select few to have come out on top in that battle.

While he did not score, the abiding memory of that game and arguably that Slam, was Bastareaud holding off O’Driscoll while delivering a delightful offload to Clément Poitrenaud to coast over.

From there, France completed the clean sweep, clinching it against England at the Stade de France, and Bastareaud seemed like a fixture in the team.

That would not prove to be the case – he fell out of favour and did not feature again for Les Bleus until 2013.

By that point, he had moved to Toulon, where he would go onto win three Champions Cup titles. In a team packed with stars from around the world, it is telling that Bastareaud was one of just two players to play every minute of those three finals, the other being Matt Giteau.

His career became one of comebacks, the Slam followed by three years in the wilderness, a return under Philippe Saint-André to become the heartbeat of his team, and a recall from Guy Novès two years after he had seemingly cast Bastareaud aside for good.

Finally, it was under Jacques Brunel that the centre returned for the final time, coming into a French team that had lost two from two to start the 2018 Championship.

He immediately took on a leadership role, serving as vice-captain and later captain as France beat Italy in Marseille and then knocked off champions England in Paris.

His ability on the floor, much like former Toulon teammate Steffon Armitage, was comparable to the best back-rowers around. England simply had no answer.

Bastareaud took on a much bigger role within a squad that was short on leaders, his sense of humour making him much-loved teammate.

On the pitch, he was someone who never shied away from a challenge, the primal scream after one crucial turnover in that England clash underlining just how much it meant to him to play for his country.

Given that passion and his love of a comeback, it is no surprise that Giteau tipped Bastareaud to make yet another before the World Cup is out.

Bastareaud is a man of his word, so that would be a surprise if only a minor one.

For now, his focus is on new horizons. Bastareaud will head to the USA to play Major League Rugby in New York at the end of the year.

There has also been talk of a switch of position to No.8 to extend his career as he enters his 30s.

Whatever happens, Bastareaud has been a unique figure within the French game for more than a decade.

The remaining chapters of his career will be worth reading.

BRISTOL BEARS owner Steve Lansdown has retained his place as the richest owner in the Premiership.

Lansdown and his wife, Catherine, own the Bears via their company, Pula Sport Limited. He is the 83rd richest person in the country with £1.72bn.

That makes him worth five times more than Saracens’ boss
Nigel Wray, right.

Finance king Lansdowne is clearly the wealthiest owner of a rugby club in this country.

Wray who made his £315m fortune through property and food is
the majority shareholder in Sarries’ owners Premier Team Holdings.

Bath’s Bruce Craig, with £289m comes in third and is 448th
in the latest UK rich list.

Sale Sharks’ Simon Orange is believed to be worth £25m, Gloucester’s Martin St Quinton £20.2m, Harlequins Duncan Saville £20m and Wasps Derek Richardson £67m.

Interestingly Premiership runners-up Exeter, the only club to operate at a profit, are owned by their 700 members with four shareholders acting as trustees.

And it is the same for East Midland rivals Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints with nobody having an overall controlling shareholding.

NEIL FISSLER / Photo: Getty Images

Tagged Bath, Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester, Harlequins, Leicester Tigers, Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, Premiership, Sale Sharks, Saracens, Wasps, Worcester Warriors

Imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, has called on pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) to “remain neutral” in Istanbul’s mayoral elections, defying Kurdish support for the opposition candidate.

“Abdullah Ocalan, in a statement from Imrali Prison, called on the Peoples’ Democratic Party to remain unbiased in the Istanbul election,” Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency tweeted on Thursday evening, referring to a June 18 letter written by Ocalan.

“The understanding of a democracy embodied in the HDP means it should not take sides or be party to the current electoral debates,” Anadolu quoted Ocalan as saying in another tweet.

Responding to the news, the HDP said Ocalan’s last-minute call would not change the party’s strategy of supporting the opposition in the mayoral election of Turkey‘s cultural capital city.

The HDP co-leaders said in a written statement on Friday that Ocalan’s statement was in line with the HDP’s strategy until now, and that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was seeking to pit the HDP and Ocalan against each other in a “desperate” move.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate, Binali Yildirim, and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, will be competing for the second time in Istanbul’s mayoral vote on Sunday.

After it had been announced on April 17 that Imamoglu had won by a small margin, the AK Party lodged an “extraordinary objection” leading to the Supreme Election Council (YSK) ordering a rerun of the March 31 vote based on alleged voting irregularities.

Ocalan’s letter was shared with members of the press on Thursday by Turkish academic Ali Kemal Ozcan. According to Ozcan, the imprisoned leader gave it to his lawyers on Tuesday, but they “hid” it from the public.

Controversy

The reports come after former HDP co-leader Salah Demirtas expressed his support for opposition candidate Imamoglu on Monday.

“We believe that Imamoglu’s appeal should be supported,” the jailed politician said in a tweet from his prison cell before quoting Imamoglu’s election slogan: “Everything will be beautiful.”

Thursday’s reports about the letter sparked controversy among HDP supporters, with some claiming it had been fabricated.

Former HDP parliamentarian Ziya Pir said on Twitter: “What kind of a brazenness that is… Because they [AK Party] believe they will lose the elections, they are reporting fabricated news. No one should take these fabricated reports into account. HDP votes are for Imamoglu.”

Voters prepare

While the AK Party has tried to reach out to Kurdish voters – who number millions in the capital and could prove to be the kingmakers – it has focused its efforts on its supporters who did not come to the polls in March.

Turkish columnist Abdulkadir Selvi told AFP news agency that the ruling party is not taking any chances on more than 400,000 AK Party supporters who did not vote in the March polls.   

“The upset voters are being phoned one by one for individual discussions,” Selvi wrote, explaining that the AK Party has been trying to mobilise its supporters for the second attempt.

Vegetable merchant Inal Kaya, who did not vote during the local elections in March and later regretted it when the ruling party lost in a shock upset, said he would vote this time. 

“I was a bit fed up with all these elections,” said Inal, peeling leeks at his stall in the district of Fatih, a conservative stronghold. It was the eighth election in just five years.

But on Sunday, he will have a second chance. “And I will certainly be there,” he said.

A push by European Union countries for the world’s biggest economic bloc to become carbon-neutral by 2050 was dropped to a footnote at a summit in Brussels, drawing widespread anger from activists demanding immediate climate action.

The leaders of the bloc’s 28-member states met on Thursday for secret deliberations in an attempt to reach a consensus on who should fill the EU’s top jobs. 

In the final statement following the summit, which stretched on into the early hours of Friday, the non-binding footnote read: “For a large majority of Member States, climate neutrality must be achieved by 2050.”

European Commission President Donald Tusk told reporters the “vast majority” of countries committed to the plan, but reaching unanimity was “not possible today”.

“We have good reason to believe this may change as no country ruled out the possibility of a positive decision in the coming months,” Tusk said.

All 28-member states must back a plan in order for it to become an official target. The lack of decision exposed a rift between the western and eastern member states on climate change. 

According to French President Emmanuel Macron and several diplomats, 24 countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany supported the initiative but were held back by Poland and three other countries that heavily depend on fossil-fuel economies. 

‘Black day’ for Europe

Activists had hoped that EU leaders would make a decisive statement on climate change at the summit.

It follows high-profile demonstrations in Europe – including the Extinction Rebellion rallies in London and Fridays for Future strikes conceived by Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg – to urge political leaders to act more decisively on climate change over the last year. 

Green parties were the big winners in May’s European Parliament elections, riding a wave of public concern over climate change. 

Political leaders feel the pressure to talk big on climate

Now it’s time to act big on climate

To avoid #ClimateBreakdown we need a #ClimateNeutralEU as quickly as possible#EUCO pic.twitter.com/iuWzg3a51S

— Greenpeace EU (@GreenpeaceEU) June 20, 2019

Environmental group Greenpeace said the leaders had blown the chance to agree on a deal and called on the EU to arrange an emergency meeting before the United Nations Climate Action summit in New York City in September.

“This is a black day for climate protection in Europe,” Greenpeace spokesman Stefan Krug said. “A small number of Eastern European countries prevented Europe’s impasse on climate protection from being broken.

“The climate strikes by tens of thousands of students and the election choices of millions of Europeans for more climate protection were ignored,” he said.

Ahead of the summit, Greenpeace activists in Brussels projected an image of the Earth as a bomb with a lit fuse onto the European Commission headquarters. 

The EU said there was still time to persuade the eastern countries to agree to the text.

Macron, who two years ago launched the One Planet Summit aimed at speeding up the implementation of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, vowed to continue to fight within the EU and at next week’s G20 summit in Japan.

“When you fight, when you move forward, you manage to make the club get bigger and to make progress,” Macron said.

‘Quicker to elect the pope’

The EU leaders were also unsuccessful in choosing who should steer the EU, with Macron blocking German Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s pick for president of the European Commission.

All of the bloc’s leading jobs are changing hands this year, prompting a jostling between member states, with power centres in Berlin and Paris clashing over who should helm the commission, while Paris and Madrid are pushing for more prominent EU postings for liberal and socialist candidates after a change of the parliamentary guard. 

“It’s quicker to elect the pope very often than it is to fill these particular positions,” Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar joked.

The EU leaders will meet again on June 30.

Two years after leaving Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar is keen on returning to the Camp Nou in the summer transfer window.

The Brazil international is regularly featuring on the front page of Catalan newspapers, including today’s edition of Sport.

It’s claimed the two clubs are already negotiating to find the right agreement so that the forward can rejoin the Blaugrana. The two clubs have started conversations though intermediaries.

Nasser Al Khelaïfi’s comments to France Football earlier this week were an indication that Thomas Tuchel’s side are ready to get rid of the former Santos star.

PSG are demanding €300m for the 27-year-old, but the Spanish champions are unwilling to pay such a hefty transfer fee for the player.

Embed from Getty Images

The La Liga winners’ idea is to pay €100m and allow Philippe Coutinho to move in the opposite direction.

Due to the poor relations between the French champions and the Catalan club, representatives of the two Brazilians, Pini Zahavi and Kia Joorabchian, are directly negotiating with presidents of the two clubs.

For Ernesto Valverde’s side to sign Neymar, they will have to sanction sales of a few high profile players for reasons mentioned below.

1. For Barca to accommodate Neymar’s salary, they will have to reduce the wage bill and that is only possible by letting a few of their players leave the club.
2. These sales can also help Barcelona raise funds to pay the transfer fee to PSG.
3. Also, to offload players who have no significant importance next season.

Barcelona’s idea is to sanction sales of Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic or Samuel Umtiti and by doing this, they will not only raise money, but also reduce their wage bill.

Therefore, their idea was to offer €100m plus the former Liverpool star for Neymar as Barca are aware new PSG sporting director Leonardo likes Coutinho. Another option would be to take Rakitic and Umtiti plus cash for Neymar.

PSG will have to chose from the list of players and, depending on it, the final valuation will vary.

For now, Sport states negotiations are progressing at a ‘good pace’, better than they seem.