Paris (AFP)
The presence or not of Eduardo Camavinga, a 17-year-old prodigy from Rennes, will animate the comments around the list of the Blues unveiled Thursday (2 p.m.) by coach Didier Deschamps before the three matches played in one week in early October by the team of France.
Called in extremis in September to make up for the absence of Paul Pogba, affected by the Covid-19, will the young Breton midfielder experience a second summons despite the expected return of the "Pickaxe"?
The coach will put an end to the suspense on Thursday at the beginning of the afternoon during the traditional press conference held at the headquarters of the French Football Federation in Paris, before the rally which will see the Blues face Ukraine in friendly terms (October 7, Saint-Denis), then Portugal (October 11, Saint-Denis) and Croatia (October 14, Zagreb) in the League of Nations.
If the Rennes N.10 "has the potential to come back" to the Blues, as Deschamps said after his brilliant thirty minutes on September 8 against Croatia (4-2), the competition in midfield remains high for the most part. young French international for over 100 years.
In the midfield, world champions Pogba and N'Golo Kanté are indestructible and Adrien Rabiot has the experience of the Champions League with Juventus Turin, where he ejected a Blaise Matuidi from his starting status last year. long essential.
- Coman back?
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Party at Inter Miami, in the less tough North American championship, and in the midst of waiting for a work permit at the last meeting, he applied again but Deschamps warned that the situation was becoming "more complicated for him".
Camavinga therefore has reason to hope, even if his eventual return to Clairefontaine will probably have to come at the expense of another regular at Château des Yvelines.
In the balance: Moussa Sissoko, regularly called from the World Cup and versatile because he can occupy the right lane, Steven Nzonzi, his Rennes partner in regaining form, or Corentin Tolisso, recent winner of the Champions League with Bayern Munich and preserved in September.
The traffic jam will also concern the offensive assets of the world champions.
Behind the essential Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappé or Olivier Giroud and the convincing Wissam Ben Yedder, Anthony Martial scored big points in September.
But the battle will rage for the other seats because the Bavarian Kingsley Coman is back, like Florian Thauvin, seen again with Marseille after a long injury.
These two can disrupt Nabil Fekir (Real Betis) and Jonathan Ikoné (Lille), called up in early September.
- "More time" -
Without forgetting, of course, Houssem Aouar: the Lyonnais, who can also evolve in a more remote position of the midfielder, was to celebrate his first summons at the start of the school year but the Covid-19 caught up with him at the last moment.
He has been living since a complicated start to the season with OL, against a backdrop of uncertainties concerning his future.
The certainties are stronger in defense, where the return of Benjamin Pavard (Bayern) is expected.
However, it will be necessary to scrutinize whether the newcomer Dayot Upamecano (Leipzig), one of the few to have played all of the two September matches for his first appearances in Blue (with a goal but mixed performances), will have sufficiently convinced Deschamps .
A presence in the October list, eight months before the Euro postponed to June-July 2021, will be worth a lot: due to the scheduling of a third (friendly) match in addition to the two usual League of nations, the coach will have the opportunity to run as rarely.
"The 8 scheduled matches (throughout the fall) give us more time to set up different things, different associations, different systems. This is not ideal when we want to remain efficient but we must go through this, because in March, we will be in the straight line and there will be less time, "assured the Basque in September, after unveiling a list full of surprises.
Bis repetita?
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