The time for the second international break of the season has arrived. The French team, which fell against Italy (1-3) then saved its honor against Belgium (2-0), will play two new matches in group 2 of League A of this new edition of the Nations League. The Blues will cross swords with Israel in Budapest then Belgium in Brussels. But this period is also marked by the absence of captain Kylian Mbappé. Supposedly injured, the Real Madrid striker remained in Spain to continue his rehabilitation, although he played 70 minutes for the Merengues this weekend against Villarreal. One of the key themes of this international break concerns, once again, the captain’s armband. The context of this truce will propel a new player to captain the team for these next two meetings. According to the survey proposed by us on the site French Football Weekly69% of you offered this role to goalkeeper Mike Maignan out of a total of 35,764 voters. But the truth seems different.
With the absence of Kylian Mbappé during this international break and the retirement of Antoine Griezmann, the French coach finds his back against the wall and will thus have to choose a new interim captain who should logically subsequently be named official vice-captain, substitute therefore the star of Real Madrid. And for several days, applications have officially or unofficially been submitted by players including Ibrahima Konaté: “Leader is something innate. We have it or not. You have to be a person liked by everyone. A leader will be there especially when things are not going well, it’s like the foundations of a house, he holds the group together so that everything goes well. A few players have the profile, I have two or three names: Mike (Maignan), me, Jules (Koundé), Aurel (Tchouaméni). These are the only names that come to mind.”he said. Although he did not start during the last Euro, he nonetheless remains one of the leaders of the French team. The Liverpool defender does not hesitate to express his opinions and thus gave a definition of what a captain of a selection should be.
Mike Maignan failed by Deschamps!
However, a clear idea began to emerge in the minds of French observers at the start of the week. While many thought quite logically that the captaincy would go to Mike Maignan, Jules Koundé or Aurélien Tchouaméni, Didier Deschamps wants to avoid dragging out the subject and thus paralyzing this gathering once again, while the September truce had given gives rise to certain internal frictions: “The captaincy? We haven’t talked about it yet. There is a good atmosphere, as usual. We know the captain, it’s Kylian. Now he’s not here. It will be the coach’s decision.detailed Christopher Nkunku. But against all expectations, while some even saw him as the favorite candidate, the ideal consensus, the AC Milan goalkeeper was simply rejected by Didier Deschamps and his staff at the start of the week. A very strange decision, especially since the French coach has never been reluctant to give the armband to a goalkeeper, as demonstrated by the career of Hugo Lloris in the Blues.
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Indeed, according to information from The Teamthe captaincy should be played out well between Jules Koundé and Aurélien Tchouaméni. In this sense, Mike Maignan, who has already been informed that the armband was not going to return to him, expressed significant disappointment. RMC Sport had nevertheless affirmed a few days ago that Maignan had the approval of the staff. The player named this Thursday against Israel will thus become the 132nd captain in the history of the France team since 1904. This role will therefore be offered to the Madrid midfielder or the Barcelona defender. A choice which risks, despite the obvious CV of the two, causing a lot of ink to flow in the coming days, especially since Mike Maignan has always assumed his role as vocal leader, particularly in September when he spoke in the locker room, s opposing certain executives of the team including Kylian Mbappé, or even in the mixed zone in the corridors of the Parc des Princes where he came to answer questions from journalists after the rout suffered by Italy.
