More than half of the sacred team in 2018 in Russia will not be traveling to Qatar.
by Anthony Hernandez
Italy in 2010, Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018: none of these world champion teams in football title has managed to cross the first round of the following football world. And it’s been sixteen years since it lasts. In the twentieth e century, only Brazil, titled in 2002, had succeeded (eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup). In 2022, the French team will try to escape the curse with a list remained compared to the Russian campaign. For various reasons, thirteen 2018 world champions will not be traveling to Qatar (from November 20 to December 18).
The most obvious losses for the Blues are called Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kanté, wounded packages. For the first, also upset by the incredible story of blackmail and extortion which mixes those around him, he reigned a kind of false suspense as for his presence in the list. For Kanté, handicapped by physical glitches for a year, optimism was not of rigor, and this even before the operation of the hamstrings in October of the Chelsea player.
The last -minute package on November 14, from Presnel Kimpembe, replacing in 2018, is another pebble in the Deschamps shoe. Insufficiently recovered from an Achilles tendon injury, the Parisian had grown in the Blues from the coronation in Russia.
Benjamin Mendy, a separate case
Pillar of the midfield during the first coronation of Didier Deschamps as a coach, Blaise Matuidi, 35, has not put on the blue jersey for three years. In 2022, he did not play the slightest match even if he has still not officially announced his retirement – the midfielder occupies a role of ambassador at Inter Miami, his last club.
Revelation of the 2018 World Cup, defender Samuel Umtiti, scorer against Belgium in the semi-finals, never ceases to fight against physical seeds. In Russia, he had played despite a knee problem. Transferred to Lecce after being put on the touch at Barça, he went out on injury during his third match.
Another Lyonnais was betrayed by his body. Corentin Tolisso, luxury joker in the midfield during the 2018 title, is far from his best level. Housed at Olympique Lyonnais, he only played five hundred and forty minutes in ten games before getting injured in the thigh a month ago. At 36, the veteran Adil Rami, a sort of G.O. In Russia, has no more international ambition despite his rather successful return to Ligue 1 in Troyes.
others, like Djibril Sidibé, who multiplies failed loans in Monaco or Aek Athens; Thomas Lemar, in difficulty at Atlético de Madrid; Nabil Fekir, who shines with Bétis Seville but has never really found his place in selection; Florian Thauvin, who exiled to Mexico; And Steven Nzonzi, who is already there since he plays Qatar in Al-Rayyan, have disappeared for a while from the radar of Didier Deschamps.