AS Pierrot Vauban Strasbourg, SV Linx, US Raon, US Avranche - Jonathan Clauss knows his way around the lower-class amateur leagues.

In those of his home country France as well as in those of the neighboring country Germany, which he learned to appreciate at the southern Baden Oberliga club Linx between 2013 and 2015.

It was between 2010 and 2017 that the right winger, who was trained at Racing Strasbourg, toured the provinces without arousing the interest of a professional club.

Wherever he was, he liked to play football, and since he had to earn a few more euros, he also worked as a postman conscientiously and with his typical friendliness.

Actually, there was nothing to suggest that the Alsatian would become a first-class professional, let alone a candidate for the national team.

After he had been able to show his talent under modest professional conditions in the 2017/18 season in the ranks of the second division promoted US Quevilly Rouen and was then relegated with his team to the third division, Clauss was once again faced with the question: what now?

There was a lack of offers in football.

So Clauss seriously considered ending his hitherto modest sporting career and working full-time back home in Strasbourg as a postman.

After all, a club from Belarus showed interest in him.

But then DSC Arminia Bielefeld approached the then 26-year-old occasional professional.

The East Westphalian club's scouts became aware of Jonathan Clauss because he could be used anywhere on the right flank.

Whether as a defender, midfielder or attacker: This robust, technically gifted, fast and dangerous player beyond the radar screens of the big clubs offered himself as a supplement or, ideally, as a reinforcement for the squad of an ambitious German second division team.

Especially since right-back Cedric Brunner, who is still active for Arminia, was injured and had to be replaced at short notice.

Clauss took his chance.

When Brunner was fit again, he moved further forward and thus caught the attention of a broader public.

The Frenchman, who initially looked like a temporary professional, quickly made a name for himself as an indispensable offensive player in a team that returned to the Bundesliga in 2020, not least thanks to five goals and seven assists from the unstoppable Jonathan Clauss, after eleven years in second and third division.

But not with Clauss, who had also been spotted elsewhere during his two years in Bielefeld and therefore returned to his home country on a free transfer to Ligue 1 promoted RC Lens.

"I came as a child and will move on as a man," he called out to the Arminia fans after two years of professional happiness in Bielefeld.

Clauss continued his run at the 1998 French champions so unabated that the never seriously injured winger, in his second season, has scored seven goals and provided 15 assists to achieve a dream goal that he has had good reason to believe in for some time.

Childhood dream about detours

"When I see my performances and 'Les Bleus' play with a three-man defence, I believe in my chance to play there," he said of his burgeoning international ambitions.

And that's how it happened now.

After some hesitation, Didier Deschamps, the coach of world champions France, named Jonathan Clauss for the first time last week at the age of 29 to the squad of the "Equipe Tricolore" for the upcoming international matches against Ivory Coast this Friday (9:15 p.m. on DAZN) in Marseille and against South Africa (9:15 p.m. at DAZN) next Tuesday in Lille.

A video of the moment the squad was announced on French television from the dressing room of Racing Clubs Lens reveals everything about how popular this Jonathan Clauss, in whom top international clubs such as Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are said to be interested, always within his teams has been.

When his name was first mentioned in the "Défenseurs", Clauss, completely overwhelmed by his first nomination for his national team, covered his face with his hands and, lying on a sofa, tried to stay calm.

His enthusiastic teammates romp around him, cheering Clauss and singing him a song.

For him, the professional on detours, a childhood dream will come true this week, which he may have believed in when almost nobody in France knew him.

And that's not so long ago.