Soccer-World-Ribery turns the clock back as World Cup looms

By Julien Pretot PARIS, June 6 (Reuters) - A tormented soul at the last World Cup and a restrained man two years ago at Euro 2012, Frenchman Franck Ribery has once again become what made him of one the brightest players in Europe - a carefree character who loves to play football. Yet his participation in the World Cup has been threatened by lower back pains in the run-up to the tournament. Coach Didier Deschamps has included him in his 23-man squad, a risk he would probably not have taken with any other player except maybe striker Karim Benzema. The Bayern Munich winger forced his way into the limelight at the 2006 World Cup where, under the guidance of Zinedine Zidane, he was a breath of fresh air in an ageing squad, scoring a stunning goal against Spain in the last 16. Ribery, who sustained a scarred face in a car accident with his parents when he was two years old, was a late inclusion in Raymond Domenech's squad and Zidane was quickly won over, calling him the "jewel of French football". The jewel, however, was a rough diamond and it took a few scrapes over the years to polish it and get the final product, which Ribery now is as he gears up for his third World Cup. The man from northern France, who has been groomed into a world class player at Bayern since 2006, seems to have buried the dark side that could have seriously troubled his career. The year 2010 was Ribery's annus horribilis when shortly before the World Cup he was questioned as part of an investigation into a prostitution ring in Paris. After the tournament, Ribery and others were charged with having sex with an underage prostitute, only for the charges to be dropped in January this year. The scandal, however, got Ribery's World Cup off on the wrong foot and the infamous France players' strike did not do much to change the midfielder's badly damaged image. Ribery was at the forefront of the mutiny, gatecrashing France's biggest TV show. "Since Euro 2008 I have been suffering in this France team, every time we join the squad there are problems," Ribery said, while defending forward Nicolas Anelka who had been kicked out of the squad for insulting then coach Domenech. On his Stade de France comeback after a three-match ban, Ribery was booed but a part of the crowd also chanted his name, as if the fans were torn over his return. At Euro 2012, Ribery was the best player in an average team, but it was only when Didier Deschamps took over as coach from Laurent Blanc that he recovered the carefree attitude of the man who once dumped a bucket of water over Bayern great Oliver Kahn for fun. "Coach Deschamps gave me back my desire and my freshness," Ribery told daily Le Figaro last year. "I can play freely. Sometimes I have the carefreeness I had in 2006. Something clicked with Deschamps." Ribery's attitude on and off the pitch is the best example of how he feels, with the winger, who says he enjoys a great relationship with Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, leading the Munich side to a Bundesliga-German Cup-Champions League treble. He was voted UEFA's Best Player in Europe for 2013 but it was not enough to clinch FIFA's Ballon d'Or trophy as the world's best player, a disappointment he quickly put behind him after finishing third behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. A top-notch display at this year's World Cup in Brazil could help him claim the award this year because there is no doubt he has fulfilled his potential and is one of the world's great players. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris and Mike Collett)