• Didier Deschamps unveiled this Thursday the list of 23 players selected for the first three matches of the France team scheduled for early September. 

  • Olivier Giroud, replacing during the Euro due to the return of Karim Benzema, was not called by the coach. 

  • Even if the latter justifies his decision by a "sporting choice" of the moment, the question of the future in Blue of the second scorer in the history of the selection inevitably arises. 

It was one of the great mysteries of this back-to-school list, raised by Didier Deschamps in the early afternoon on Thursday.

Olivier Giroud is ultimately not one of the players selected to face Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and Finland in early September in the World Cup qualifiers.

A small earthquake, anyway, on the scale of the Blues, since we are talking about a player who weighs 110 selections and 46 goals, and who was in all battles since the arrival of DD in 2012, despite criticism and the months spent polishing the bench in a club.

4️⃣ new players in Didier Deschamps' list for the rally which begins on Monday!

👋 @TheoHernandez, @atchouameni, @JordanVeretout and @ MoussaDiaby_19 🇫🇷 #FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/kcIpkhy26d

- French team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) August 26, 2021

The coach, who had always supported him through thick and thin, this time decided to do without him. Definitively ? Not necessarily, listening to the boss at a press conference. “I never had a radical position for anyone,” says Deschamps. Olivier is still available, his situation has changed with his transfer to Milan, where he has regained playing time. It is simply a sporting choice of the moment, compared to a list of 23, with competition. There is in particular the return of Anthony Martial, who was injured and could not be at the Euro. It is up to Olivier to continue to be efficient. He remains available for the France team. "

A sporting choice?

The argument is understandable, but debatable.

Because on this single criterion of the ground, the situation of the former Montpellier (34 years) has not worsened compared to these last three years.

On the contrary.

The world champion has so far made a more than decent start in the Milan jersey, with a friendly goal and a solid first match in Serie A at the start of the week.

If we base ourselves on sporting performances, we can consider that Giroud could not have been called up before, as Benzema could have been called back earlier as well.

Benzema-Mbappé priority

It's good that there are other elements, more personal and which concern group life, which come into play.

The dynamics have obviously changed since Karim Benzema reappeared in the landscape.

Deschamps will never deliver the bottom of his thoughts publicly, but he must consider, after the experience of the Euro, that Giroud is not compatible with his major offensive players, on and off the field.

The media output of the ex-Blues during the preparation, when he criticized Kylian Mbappé (without naming him) "the balls that do not arrive" after the match against Bulgaria (3-0), remained in the way from the breeder's throat.

"He knows it, I told him: he didn't have to say that, it's a certainty", recalled the latter in his big interview with

L'Equipe

last week.

In this interview, two other pieces of sentences did not seem to play in favor of the second highest scorer in the history of the Blues. "There are always pages that turn, after the competitions, there are relays to take", announced DD, then specifying: "I know very well what he did, and very well done (...) Olivier and a few others, it was in 2018, but today we are in 2021 and I am not here to give assurances to anyone. "

It now appears that Deschamps is looking to clear the field to put Benzema, Mbappé (and to a lesser extent Griezmann) in the best possible position in order to find THE formula that will carry the Blues until the 2022 World Cup. If Giroud wants to get involved at the party, he will have to slam a really incredible season in Italy.

He who dreams of overtaking Thierry Henry in the pantheon of French scorers has always repeated that he was built in adversity.

Again, it is served.

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  • Olivier Giroud