Michael Olise is undoubtedly the best player on the France team at the moment. The Bayern attacking midfielder demonstrated it again by scoring a hat-trick in complete peace, Monday evening against Northern Ireland (3-1), during the Blues’ second preparation match before the 2026 World Cup. The London native opened the scoring with the right after a shot deflected by Ousmane Dembélé (43rd), doubled the lead with a big recovery from the left (49th) then sent a superb curling strike into the Northern Irish goal (74th). Just before leaving to the applause of the public at Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
Olise is the 17th French international to score at least three goals in a selection match, counting the two quintuplets in history (Eugène Maës and Thadée Cisowski) and the quadruplets (Just Fontaine and Kylian Mbappé did it). Mbappé scored the last French hat-trick in November 2023 against Gibraltar, but, as a reminder, he also did it in the final of the 2022 World Cup against Argentina.
Michael Olise as Jean Nicolas
Where Michael Olise stands out is that the talented left-hander scored his hat-trick in preparation for the World Cup and this has not happened for a Blues player since 1934! Jean Nicolas struck three times against the Netherlands in Rotterdam (4-3 victory). Nicolas was a terror of the surfaces at the time, he was top scorer in D1 in 1938 with FC Rouen as well as top scorer in D2 in 1934, 1935 and 1936, always with his Norman club.
A few days later, France lost in the first round of the 1934 World Cup in Italy, against Austria and the famous Wunderteam (3-2 after, Jean Nicolas opened the score). If the official coach was the British George Kimpton, it was Gaston Barreau who was considered the coach as national manager.
