Rennes (AFP)

A tempting end of the season with Rennes, the Olympics, perhaps the Euro with the Blues, a glitter transfer ... 2020 promises to be rich in challenges for the very young Eduardo Camavinga. But in Ligue 1, his opponents are now waiting for him, like in Nice on Friday (8.45pm).

Since entering the professional bath one evening in April 2019 in Angers, at 16 years and 5 months old, Camavinga has impressed by his precociousness but above all by his confidence, his liveliness and his vision of the game, fueling the rumor of a interest of the great Real Madrid.

This tall and slender midfielder (1m82, 68 kg) with thick braids and an eternal smile has imposed himself throughout the season as a sentry or relay, with an ability to break the lines which has greatly contributed to the success from Rennes, currently 3rd in the championship before the 21st day this weekend.

Even on his first goal in Ligue 1, he spread his whole class: three defenders erased and a victorious strike at Lyon in December (1-0) ...

Inevitably, Rennes coach Julien Stéphan can no longer do without him: "Edo" has played 19 of 20 league games this season, including 18 as a titular player, and has totaled 1,599 minutes in the field, the 4th playing time of the team.

- La Marseillaise -

Born in Angola to Congolese parents, he arrived in France with his family at the age of 2. First the galley in the North, then the installation in Fougères, about forty kilometers east of Rennes, where he set foot on his first soccer field.

Very quickly spotted, he joined the training center of Stade Rennes at 13 and his star never stopped rising, starting with a title of champion of France with the U17 Stade Rennes in 2018.

At the beginning of November, a video published by his teammate Joris Gnagnon showed him singing the Marseillaise with glee in the locker room to celebrate his naturalization ... just in time to honor his first selection with the Espoirs against Georgia on November 15.

In front of his extraordinary performances, many await him during the football tournament of the Tokyo Olympic Games (July 23-August 8) and some even imagine him climbing another step to access Euro-2020 in June. Blues coach Didier Deschamps could give an initial answer during friendly matches against Ukraine and Finland in March.

"If his career path will lead him to an international competition at the end of the season, so much the better for him, it is because he will have deserved it. But before that, he still has four months of tough competition to provide" , tempers Julien Stéphan, who hopes him "a second part of the season as good as the first, even better".

- Target -

But "it's not necessarily easy for a 17-year-old to chain like this every three days," he admits. Especially since the teenager has another deadline to address in June: his ES bac ...

And on the ground, things are getting worse. The opponents of Rennes have learned to be wary of the big kid, who is now with 48 faults suffered one of the most targeted players in the championship.

Two weeks ago, the Marseillais thus succeeded in extinguishing the star, jostled on all sides and finally limped out.

"It's normal for him to take hits," reacted Rennes striker M'Baye Niang. "If you play against Camavinga today, you are trying to destabilize him because he is a big player, who creates discrepancies, makes differences, so you try to limit him to the maximum."

And if Rennes takes great care of its young prodigy - preserved in particular from the numerous media requests -, on the field the instructions of the coach are uncompromising: "When there is a lot of pressure on him, he must increase his markdown speed and decision-making speed ", says Stéphan.

© 2020 AFP