France World Cup Preview

Manager: Didier Deschamps

Key Player: Karim Benzema

Best Finish: Winners (1998 & 2018)

World Cup Group: France, Australia, Denmark, Tunisia

The joint favourites alongside Brazil for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, France will be hopeful of retaining their 2018 title and becoming only the fourth team to have won more than two World Cups.

On paper, a lot of people will say that France have the strongest squad going into this winter’s tournament. Players like Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappe, Christopher Nkunku and Mike Maignan have all been nominated for this years Mens Ballon D’or, with many other in the French squad unfortunate to have missed out.

However, with Deschamps giving a number of youth players a chance during the Nations League this year, I would not be shocked to see some of the French youth be given a chance to try and break the curse of a European World Cup holding champion crashing out in the Group Stage, a feat they unfortunately achieved as holders of the 1998 title.

With young players like Konate, Saliba, Diaby and Tchouameni all looking to break into the first team, Deschamps has quite a tough job on his hands.

Anything less than a World Cup final appearance has to be deemed a failure to the joint bookies’ favourites.