Turkish delight for in-form Menez

By Andrew Haslam in Kusadasi

France captain Jérémy Menez is delighted with his side's performances in the UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup, and believes the competition will benefit all concerned in the long term.

Scoring spree
Having scored three times in the opening game against Cameroon and also found the net against Nigeria, Menez's decision to travel to Turkey despite making the first-team breakthrough with FC Sochaux-Montbéliard this season has been thoroughly vindicated.

'Useful experience'
"This is a very important tournament, with some excellent matches between European and African teams," the 17-year-old striker told uefa.com. "These matches will help us in our future careers, as we are gaining the experience of playing against new opposition, which is extremely useful."

High point 
European Under-17 champions France started the competition at a frenetic pace, putting seven past Cameroon without reply, and Menez believes that game could well turn out to be the high point of the competition for his country. "The first match was very good, both personally and for the team in general," he said. "We had a lot of respect for Cameroon before the match and, despite the final score, it was not an easy game but as a team we played very well. Obviously it was good to score three goals, but the most important thing is that the team won and performed really well."

European glory
Unsurprisingly, the striker considers last year's UEFA European Under-17 Championship – where he found the net against Turkey and in the semi-final win against holders Portugal – one of his best achievements to date. "That tournament is a fantastic memory for me," he said. "Individual players do not win a tournament like that, it is the whole team, because everyone works together for the same goals and our final victory was proof of that. My best memory is from the final, against Spain. They had the better of the match, I remember, and were on top but could not score and we got a late goal to win 2-1."

Academy achievements
Born in Longjumeau in the suburbs of Paris, Menez has experienced a rapid rise in the last year having joined Sochaux in 2001. "I moved to Montbeliard four years ago. I spent three years with the club's academy, playing for their various sides, before stepping up to their first team this year," he said.

League regular
The striker has appeared 18 times in Ligue 1 this season, scoring his first goal against AS Monaco FC in November before striking his first hat-trick in professional football against FC Girondins de Bordeaux on 22 January. He also appeared in four of Sochaux's games in the UEFA Cup group stage, helping his side to a place in the competition’s Round of 32, but despite his initial success, Menez is not expecting too much too soon.

'Confidence of coach'
"This is my first season in the Sochaux first team and, in the first half of the campaign, everything went well," he said simply. "The coach [Guy Lacombe] has shown confidence in me, I feel I am learning and getting better all the time, so I expect the second part of the season to be even better."

Sochaux focus
Menez is similarly modest when asked about his future ambitions, saying: "First, I want to win the Meridian Cup with France, and then I want to continue to play for Sochaux, and hopefully do well. For the moment, I am not thinking much about the future, I am simply concentrating on Sochaux. I want to work hard in the second half of the season, and see what we can accomplish."