Franck Ribery profile: 10 things you need to know about the reported Manchester United target

Manchester United are playing down reports of a £63million bid for Franck Ribery, but the France international is certainly set to be one of football's hot properties this summer after Bayern Munich's disappointing season.

Here's everything you need to know about the man Zinedine Zidane calls the "jewel of French football".

1) Franck Bilal Ribery was born on 7 April 1983 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, and brought up in poverty on a notorious estate. As a two-year-old he was hurled through a car windscreen in a crash, leaving him needing hundreds of stitches and with the famous facial scars which have seen him nicknamed Scarface.

2) He joined the Lille football academy as a 13-year-old in 1996 and impressed on the pitch - but was kicked out three years later because his schoolwork was not up to the same standards.

3) A late developer, he joined his hometown club, amateur side US Boulogne in 2001, moving on to national league club Olympique Ales a year later. His first professional match did not come until 2003 when he played for Stade Brestois in Ligue 2.

4) Ribery then began his steep rise up the footballing ranks and starred for League 1 club Metz on the right wing in 2004. He scored twice in 20 games, and his form prompted Turkish giants Galatasaray to snap him up. There he earned the nickname "Ferraribery" for his acceleration - but he left the club after only five months (having penned a four-year deal) over a pay dispute.

5) Fifa stepped in and ruled that he would be allowed to move from Turkey to Olympique Marseille - and Galatasaray later had their case for compensation thrown out by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. At Marseille Ribery made 68 appearances in all competitions and netted 14 times as he led the team to second place in Ligue 1 behind Olympique Lyonnais in 2006-07. In his time at the club he also took OM to two Coupe de France finals.

Never shy to shoot, here are some of his top strikes:

6) While at OM he earned his first international call-up and he made his debut for Les Bleus on 27 May 2006, when he came on as a substitute against Mexico in a World Cup warm up. Only a fortnight later he started for France in their opening group game of the World Cup, against Switzerland.

7) He went on to play in every game, including the final against Italy, and netted in the second round against Spain - a game that France won 3-1. Legend Zinedine Zidane described him as "the jewel of French football". He has won 36 caps for his country so far and scored seven goals.

8) With most of Europe's top clubs eying up Ribery it came as a surprise that he opted for German giants Bayern Munich in the summer of 2007. After they signed him for a club record €25m, club president Franz Beckenbauer declared: "We have won the lottery." He was named the 2007-08 German Footballer of the Year.

9) This season he scored the only goals in two 1-0 victories over Lithuania to keep alive French hopes of qualifying for next year's World Cup in South Africa. Though he has 12 goals to his name this season with Bayern, the No7 is reported to have fallen out with club officials.

10) After converting to Islam he married his childhood sweetheart, Wahiba, with whom he has two children, Hizya and Shakinez. Despite being a father, he still has a childish sense of humour at times, however - and shows it below, when he gets in trouble in the Middle East.

FREE £25 BET WITH BETFAIR

Get your hands on this week's estimated jackpot of £100,000 by playing the New Football Pools .

Find out what our resident Premier League fan bloggers think - and let them know your views.

Follow every Premier League game live with our brilliant Match Tracker .