Didier Deschamps has named his France squad for the latest Nations League fixtures, and AC Milan fans will be surprised by one decision.
During the last international break, Youssouf Fofana only played 31 minutes of football for the French National Team. However, after further improvements in the last month, more minutes would have been anticipated.
Instead, Deschamps has gone the other way with his decision, and L’Equipe (via Milan News) reports that the midfielder has been left out of the National Team squad for this run of fixtures. The manager has chosen to take Eduardo Camavinga, Matteo Guendouzi, N’Golo Kanté, Manu Koné, Adrien Rabiot, and Warren Zaire-Emery.
Milan still have some representation within the squad, with Theo Hernandez and Mike Maignan being given the call as expected. Fofana’s omission from the squad could be a blessing for the Rossoneri, given how many games are approaching.
There are still four games in the Champions League to play, as well as key fixtures against Juventus and Atalanta, so Paulo Fonseca will need to ensure his players are all at peak condition if they are to make it through the period unscathed.
Perhaps, his omission may have been done to allow him a rest, or even for Deschamps to trial other players. However, he is probably the biggest player missing from the squad after Kylian Mbappe.
Well, great. I love it. The fewer Milan players are called up by their national teams, the better. We don’t want them to get injured or exhausted, and we actually even don’t want them to shine too much under the international spotlight, haha, which might lead to wealthy teams making a pass at them to try to snatch them from us.
So, yeah, let’s be happy that Fofana was not called up. He is doing great for us, and that’s France’s loss and our gain.
I wish Mike and Theo hadn’t been called up either. Mike has had a history of injuries when he’s with his national team; I don’t know what on Earth they do there regarding training but whatever they do, tends to damage Mike. And Theo often comes back from international duty very tired and off match form. He always takes a couple of games to resume good performances for us, after these international breaks.
Pulisic is another one who comes back exhausted from the USMNT, not only because that’s a lousy team so Puli has to work super hard to try to get a result when he plays for them, but also because the distances involved are much bigger, resulting in several hours of international air travel.
I agree with your points, however I’ve walked passed the first class section on an international flight and it seems pretty damn comfortable 😂
Haha, while I have very rarely flown true international first class (which is disappearing anyway; only a few airlines still have true first class instead of just coach and business – Air France, Singapore, Etihad, Emirates), I have regularly flown business, which also has those comfortable pods that become flat beds.
Still, a transatlantic flight is tiresome even if you lay flat to sleep in one of those pods. There’s jet lag, there’s airport waiting, there are a number of sleep disruptions with noise and lights and food carts and turbulence and so forth. Puli still gets tired even if if they fly him in business or first.
When he was with Chelsea, at least half the time he was called up by Deschamps, N’Golo Kanté would either get injured in camp or return from camp injured. The guy is getting seriously old and injury prone.
Dunno if he is still like that. Maybe the Saudi Pro League is less stressful.
If Kanté gets injured early in camp, Deschamps may still call in Fofana.