World Cup 98: French rate Scholes ahead of Ronaldo in world's best

By John Lichfield And Glenn Moore

PAUL SCHOLES is in, Ronaldo is out. A World XI, chosen by the French sports daily L'Equipe after the first stage of France 98, includes the England and Manchester United midfielder but excludes the man regarded by many as the world's greatest player.

L'Equipe has covered every game in the World Cup in detail and awarded a mark out of 10 to each player. The newspaper's "team of the first stage" is based on an average of these scores, in which six is regarded as very good and eight outstanding. (Two England players - Anderton and Beckham - merited that outstanding eight against Colombia in Lens).

Scholes averages 6.5, including 7.5 in Lens. "I was pleased with my performances against Tunisia and Colombia," he said. "I was not so pleased with the Romania game, I did not have a shot or make anything.

"We let Romania dictate the pace in that game, it was too slow. We didn't let Colombia do that. We had a lot of options, Michael Owen's pace, David Beckham's passing and crossing, Alan Shearer, Darren Anderton."

This positive approach is common to England's young players who, said Scholes, are eagerly looking forward to tomorrow's match against Argentina. "There's no pressure on us. They're the favourites," he said.

The finest outfield player in the tournament so far, according to L'Equipe, is France's - and soon to be Chelsea's - Marcel Desailly, who has averaged 7 points. He is matched only by the Tunisian goalkeeper, Chokri El Ouaer.

The L'Equipe team, based on games played so far, curiously contains two players from Chile, who have since been eliminated, but neither of the competition's leading scorers, Gabriel Batistuta and Christian Vieri.

L'EQUIPE WORLD XI (4-4-2): El-Ouaer (Tunisia) 7 pts; Cafu (Brazil) 6.17, Worns (Germany) 6.83, Desailly (France) 7, Rojas (Chile) 6.5; Luis Enrique (Spain) 6.33, Scholes (England) 6.5, Jugovic (Yugoslavia) 6.33, Garcia Aspe (Mexico) 6.5; B Laudrup (Denmark) 6.67, Zamorano (Chile) 6.67.