According to various sources, the strongly built 19-year-old midfielder played for various small clubs in Marseille before he joined Nīmes Olympique as a trainee last year. A regular player for their reserves he made two appearances in the first team.

Arsenal scouts apparently had been watching him a few times (7 says the paper) before Mr. le Boss himself rang the Nīmes President to offer the lad a five year contract. AW said of him "he is the Vieira of 2005". Interesting to note that the French club did not proposed a renewal of his current contract, so he should be joining Arsenal for free, like Jerōme Aliadičre a few months ago.

Demel factfile (well, sort of) : born Orsay, 19/06/1981
1.90m, 85kg