Very little media buzz for obvious reasons but Espoirs will play a tournament in Renunion. Willy Sagnol picked the following squad: Gardiens : Areola (Lens), Boucher (Toulouse) Défenseurs : Foulquier (Rennes), Landre (Lens), Laporte (Bilbao/ESP), Rose (Valenciennes), Umtiti (Lyon), Zouma (St-Etienne) Milieux : Eysseric (Nice), Ferri (Lyon), Kondogbia (Monaco), Ngando (Rennes), Sanson (Montpellier), Veretout (Nantes) Attaquants : Benzia (Lyon), Martial (Monaco), Maupay (Nice), Ntep (Rennes), Sanogo (Arsenal/ANG), Thauvin (Marseille) Martial (injured) was replaced by Kingsley Coman (PSG). Digne normally would be left back in the squad but is going to the World Cup as we all know. Interesting to see if Sagnol will try Umtiti there and go with a Laporte-Zouma pairing in central defense. Jordan Ferri rewarded for his good performances with Lyon.
GK-Lloris RB-Corchia? CB-Varane CB-Sakho LB-Digne MF-Pogba MF-Cabaye MF-Matuidi RW-Valbuena ST-Benzema LW-Griezmann
Debuchy might still be here. Otherwise yes. We'll follow Marseille closely: with Bielsa, some players (Thauvin, Imbula, Payet, Lemina...) could grow as much as Llorente, Muniain, Martinez or Herrera.
indeed debuchy is still in the lead at that post. two years can be a long time: he could be passed up, but no more than a few other players on the list, and i don't see it being by corchia. two years is especially a long time for evra, but digne being his being backup to PE now doesn't mean he's automatically in line to start in 2016. even if griezemann is coming into his own, ribery is too big a commodity to rule out. of the four OM prospects listed, thauvin may indeed pan out, imbula and lemina are too young to know what they'll be like when they grow up, and if payet was at or close to NT material we'd know it by now certainly. bielsa, bielsa people think he can turn water into wine... i've never seen more frothy hype about anyone in the 22 years i've been following D1/L1. there are plenty of other known commodities, remy, lacazette, sissoko, koscielny... to conider before any of these.
Payet's problem is not a lack of qualities, or Deschamps wouldn't have called him up. It's a problem of consistency. He recognized it himself and said Bielsa will help him in that matter. Plus, Payet has a habit to do better second seasons than first ones in his clubs. Imbula has always been above the crowd. He was just waiting for any good coach to develop his skills. He was the best player for Marseille during the friendlies. With Payet.
A question I feel should be asked, as I was thinking about it last night and today: A lot has been said of our young talent. I myself was thinking about the wealth of young talent we have going into the next Euros, but does it really outclass the teams around us? Think about Spain: Muniain, Koke, Isco, Iñigo Martinez, Cristian Tello, and the list goes on and on. It's for this reason that I really think we shouldn't be preoccupied with the youth of the team going into Euro 2016. I have heard many people say Valbuena and the like will be too old. Some have even gone so far as to put a 30 year old cap on the team... We need the veterans, because I don't see youth alone pulling it off.
I agree. I think it would be crazy to put an age cap on the NT. I believe what is going to make France so dangerous in the upcoming years will be the combination of youth and veteran talent. I think Germany will be the only country in the world that can match France's talent. I may be in the minority, but the next crop of Spanish talent doesn't impress me. I think they will do well, but I don't see those kids winning a championship for Spain.
ribery has retired from international football.... i guess its the right time for him, he never did much for the team, he was supposed to succeed zidane but never lived up to it, but he played at a time when france was in turmoil so i cant blame him (damn you Domenech) and france doesnt need him as we saw from the world cup
To be honest, I never really got the impression he cared all that much about the national team, so this news doesn't surprise me. He honestly had no reason to retire; he could have easily participated in Euro 2016. His talent is undeniable (especially at club level), but if he doesn't care to play for Les Bleus, then it's good his spot will be free for someone who actually cares. Griezmann, for example, has always made me feel like playing for France is a dream come true for him. It's just such a shame someone with his talent couldn't leave a mark in international football. I wish him the best, though.
indeed its a shame, lots of what if's ? questions will be asked concerning his national team career. what if he was born in a different generation? what if he had his club form for NT? what if France had good coach between 2006-2012
Club Ribery will go down in history as a legend. National Team Ribery will go down in history as wasted talent. I agree with the general sentiment that Ribery looked like he was never 100% invested in the NT. He could have been so much more. I don't know if he could have totally replaced Zizou, but it was possible considering his raw talent. It's a damn shame. Like Calogero said in Chazz Palmintieri's ''A Bronx Tale'': ''The saddest thing in life is wasted talent''.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Hernández Lucas François Bernard Hernández Pi young centerback at Atlético Madrid he got a cap with the A squad not long ago ALLEZ LES BLEUS !
We won Euro U17 !! First time since the 87 generation Nasri-Ben Arfa-Benzema-Menez in 2004 and what a successor. 15 goals scored in 6 matchs, including a record for the best striker of the competition, PSG's Odsonne Edouard - 8 goals -- the average best striker is 4 goals. 4-1 victory against Germany in final. Germany's defense was totally clean until then but was stormed by an Edouard's hat-trick. 3-0 against Italy. Sadly the news have nothing better to report than our goalkeeper, who didn't even have much to do because we dominated every game. Yeah, he stopped three badly-shot penalties... But he has a name, you gotta talk about him and nobody else.
I'm so proud of these kids! It was so clear that they were above and beyond any team in the tournament. He is part of the team. When he stopped three penalties and missed a panenka, it was worth discussing. Just because his father is famous and he shouldn't be given preferential treatment, he also shouldn't have his actions trivialized. It's not like the news is saying he single-handedly led us to victory.
Don't understand why you're being so dismissive of the 3 saves. He was at full stretch for 2 of the 3 and none were that easy.