posted Jan 17th, 2008 - A message from France with a correction of the last NSL News article brought additional attention to the recent activities of the French national teams. Clément Martin-Saint-Léon, member of the national 8-way team, kindly pointed out that it is not the French national 4-way team that will compete at the World Challenge 2008.

The A-Team from Maubeuge will attend the FSL Shamrock Showdown 2008. However, Guillaume Bernier, Mathieu Bernier, Julien Degen and Jeremie Rollet will not travel from DeLand to Bedford, as several other teams are planning to do. Both events are separated by only two weeks.

The French 4-way team that is already registered for the World Challenge 2008 is called Aerokart Mamba Maubeuge. It is one of the French B-Teams with two 8-way members, and the line-up (Emmanuel Sarrazin, Arnaud Mille, Julien Olek and Clément Martin-Saint-Léon) is not new to the NSL News audience.

Emmanuel "Manus" Sarrazin and Clément Martin-Saint-Léon are both members of the current and defending 8-way world champion team from France and have already been guiding this B-Team through the 2007 season.

The Aerokart team opened the 2007 season at the World Challenge with a 20.2 average and finished with a 19.9 average at the USPA Nationals 2007. Arnaud Mille is a new team member and replaces Guillaume Bajolet for the first time in a competition at the World Challenge 2008 in March.

Three more teams can already be added to the 4-way field that was posted with yesterday's NSL News story. The UK team Satori was introduced by the NSL News on 9 January 2008 and has the double-event travel agenda, as well, with the FSL Shamrock Showdown and then the World Challange. The two national teams of Norway, Arcteryx (Open) and Fortitudo (Women), will also compete at both events. The NSL News will introduce the Fortitudo line-up very soon and catch up with Arcteryx in a few weeks.

The website of the French 8-way team provided other interesting information that caught the attention of the NSL News. There is a paragraph that mentioned French soccer star Zinedine Zidane. This name alone was enough reason to read the whole paragraph and find out even more:

"The French 8-way recently had the honor to jump with Zinedine Zidane! The retired star of football fields did two tandem jumps in Maubeuge, for a TV show that promotes the association against genetic deseases. The jumps will be broadband next saturday on TF1 (main TV Channel in France) and the team will be live on stage with Zidane to explain about Formation Skydiving and help the association to collect money. Just after the show, we'll take a plane to Marocco where a one week training camp will take place. A lot of work is expecting us!"

Zinedine Zidane is one of the most popular names of all in France and also a worldwide soccer celebrity. He was named the "Best Player of the World Cup 2006" in Germany, even after France lost the final game against Italy. The best skydiving teams of the world competed in Germany, as well, in the same summer of 2006.

The on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia introduces Zinedine Zidane as follows and does not exclude the infamous occasion at the final game of the World Cup of Soccer in 2006:

"Zinedine Yazid Zidane, born 23 June 1972 in Marseille, popularly nicknamed Zizou, is a French former professional footballer of Algerian Kabyle descent. A midfielder, he was a member and later captain of the French national team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000, and was also the recipient of the Golden Ball as he captained the French side to the 2006 World Cup final, a match that saw his career end in controversy after he was sent off for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi."

The tandem jump was made in December 2007, and the TV show followed at the end of the year. The 8-way team traveled to Marocco right after the show for the next training camp, which is still in progress. French 8-way world champion Clément Martin-Saint-Léon, who was also on stage with Zidane, added in his message that the French national 4-way team and one of the two contending female line-ups were training in Marocco, as well. The Russian 4-way team Black Cat also just arrived and has begun with its 2008 training.