July 15, 2018. The Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Rain covers the evening sky as a crowd of enthusiastic players crowded around the flag – and the trophy. Hugo Loris, the captain of the French national team, has lifted El Al the World Cup, 20 years since the previous time. The tricolor team looked unstoppable at the time – with a big tournament behind them, which ended in a crescendo with 2: 4 over Croatia in the final game.
Almost three years have passed since that afternoon. Since then, she has managed to qualify for the European Championships – but not play in it, and lead a successful campaign in the last League of Nations that ended in first place. Just before you officially start your title defense campaign, in tonight’s qualifier against Ukraine, it’s time to check out what happened to those “wonderful 11” who won the Moscow Cup. Who went up, who went down and who kept his place – in the lineup that Didier Deschamps will go up to the grass.
Goalkeeper: Hugo Loris (Tottenham)
The man who maintained stability. The status of the Roosters’ goalkeeper has not changed, so much so that today he is the pinnacle of appearances in the current squad with 120 (followed by Olivia Giro from Chelsea with 105). The goalkeeper, who also suffered a not-so-simple injury along the way, will continue to be No. 1 on the French national team for the foreseeable future.
Right-back: Benjamin Favre (Bayern Munich)
When Favar starred in Deschamps’ right wing, he was still a Stuttgart player (who remembers). Only in January 2019 did he move to the ranks of Bayern Munich, but despite the rise in the challenge – definitely took his place last season, with 47 appearances and five goals. This season the number has already dropped (17 appearances in the league and 27 in total), and one goal, but in the national team he continues to star, and will also open tonight in the position of right defender.
Brake: Rafael Varane (Real Madrid)
The past years have not done well for the brakeman of the reigning Spanish champions. In fact, the main event in Varan’s life was those two terrible mistakes in the last 16 of the Champions League against Manchester City. Perhaps out of lack of choice, and perhaps nonetheless from the coach’s assessment, he too should be given the credit in the center of defense.
Brake: Samuel Omititi (Barcelona)
During the World Cup, he was considered one of the strongest brakes in Europe. The goal in the semi-final against Belgium also did its thing, but there it more or less stopped. A combination of injuries and poor ability has drastically lowered him – from 40 appearances in the 2017/18 season, to just 15 (in all settings!) The following season. This season he has only 13 appearances in the Catalans uniform, and he is considered the first candidate to leave the team soon. He lost his place in Deschamps’ squad (and staff); The Paris Saint-Germain staff should take his place.
Left-back: Luca Hernandez (Bayern Munich)
The negative of its counterpart from the right wing. Half a year after Fabre, Hernandez was the one who moved from Atletico Madrid to Bayern – but was far from finding his place. This season for example he has only 29 appearances in the Bavarian uniform, with the one who took the place in the left-back position being of course the Canadian Alfonso Davis (whose name Barcelona occasionally mumbles when she has trouble sleeping). In France, however, he continues to get the credit.
Contact: Paul Pogba (Manchester United)
The captain spent three challenging years. From a World Cup where, by all accounts, he was one of the best players and even stood out in a team saturated with talent, Pogba returned to a bit of a gray reality – last season, for example, he made a total of 22 appearances for Manchester United, often linking (or looking for) other places. Especially in recent times Pogba knows Edna, part of the not bad season at all of United in the league. In France he remained captain.
Contact: Angulo Canta (Chelsea)
When he lifted the World Cup, Caneta seemed unstoppable. The two championships with Leicester and Chelsea in the Premier League (the first to do so since Eric Cantona – winning two consecutive second-team teams), and the World Cup in which he also excelled, were the perfect Cinderella story, but also Caneta’s brilliance has faded a bit in recent years. Deschamps chose to change lineup, but Canta stayed there.
Right wing: Killian Ambape (PSG)
What to say? Just rose like a flower over the years. In fact, the season is (apparently) in its best shape. Ambape, whose World Cup was “his revelation”, has long since become a fait accompli – and is in a season of 30 goals in 36 appearances so far (including that crazy hat-trick against Barcelona at the Camp Nou). Who in 2018 was a promising player, in 2021 he is without a doubt the star of the team. Took the place of the next man on the list.
Under the striker: Antoine Griezmann (Barcelona)
So how was this period of “Gryzo”? Well, as they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. After the World Cup, he recorded an excellent season at Atletico Madrid with 21 goals, and apparently reached his climax – the prestigious sale to Barça in the summer of 2019. But the load of expectations and the astronomical amount invested in him were probably too heavy, and Griezmann did not really succeed in the first season. Precisely this season, when expectations have dropped, Griezmann plays for Koeman in his natural position (as he played for the national team) and begins to provide produce. For the team, anyway, he arrives in high spirits.
Left wing: Blaise Matweidi (Inter Miami)
Starting to see the end? Today, the formerly formidable midfielder is already in the MLS (where he made 15 appearances last season, in the uniform of the new venture made by David Beckham). By 2020 he had already stepped out of the national team loop, perhaps even in line with his departure from European football. The lineup has changed, from Tweedy is gone, and Adrian Ravio will fill his place in the French link ahead of the meeting at the Stade de France.
Forward: Olivia Giroud (Chelsea)
Not easy to love this French striker. He is not really a link in a chain that includes Henry or Ambape, but more of an “old-fashioned” pioneer. However, he is experiencing one big moment – with the same spectacular number in the Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid. His natural place at the top, well, remains – and he will hope to add more to his conquests, when he is only seven goals away from the all-time high. One, Thierry Henry.
