Full of anger and ease, Manu Koné succeeded in his first steps in Blue in September, symbolizing the depth of the French team’s reservoir in midfield, but he must channel his energy.
Promising. The Olympic silver medallist should return to the national team, even if he is certain not to play the next match against Israel, in October: he is suspended for two warnings received each time during his first steps on the pitch.
After three minutes against Belgium (2-0), he saw a yellow card for a tackle on Amadou Onana at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon. He had already received a card two minutes after coming on as a substitute for Youssouf Fofana during the defeat against Italy (3-1) at the Parc des Princes.
Both times, his entrances were a little laborious, Didier Deschamps noted “one or two losses of the ball” at the “start of the match” against the Belgians, but underlined his “ability. That’s also why I called him up”.
But then the new AS Roma player had a great match. He was the Blue who touched the ball the most (80) against the Red Devils, with ten balls recovered and eight duels won.
“He’s stepped up a gear after a bit of a difficult start,” said Jules Koundé. “He had a great match, whether it was recovery, direction, some passes that were well-timed.”
– “I’ve come a long way” –
While the coach lined up an unprecedented midfield with N’Golo Kanté and Matteo Guendouzi, the trio set the tempo, after a laborious first twenty minutes.
Koné “also needed the experience around him,” said Deschamps, stressing that his fine performance “requires confirmation.”
The native of Colombes, in the Paris region, has already made the most of his first two selections to stand out in a very competitive sector, where four midfielders were missing from Euro 2024: Adrien Rabiot, without a club, and Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouémeni and Warren Zaïre-Emery, injured.
Also appearing at ease at the press conference at the start of the rally, sure of his strength, Koné explained that he drew this assurance from his “atypical career”.
“I’ve come a long way, I had a serious injury in the training centre” in Toulouse, a terrible fracture of the tibia at the age of 15, he recalled.
“I was in a wheelchair for a very long time. Things like that allowed me to build a steely mentality, without that I might not be here, I’m proud of that,” Koné insisted.
– “I was hoping to be called” –
“The A team is a dream I’ve had since I was little, and in the short term I hoped to be called up,” added the 23-year-old neo-Roman calmly, not afraid of the weight on the shoulders of a beginner.
“We don’t need to put this pressure on ourselves, we are here, we have to enjoy it,” replied Koné when asked about the famous castle at the Clairefontaine training center, reserved for the A team.
“I’ve seen him for a long time, I did the INF Clairefontaine, it was a dream to achieve this goal, I saw him every day when I went to the canteen,” explains the kid who played for Paris FC at 11 years old.
Another former INF player, Marcus Thuram, whom he worked alongside in Mönchengladbach, “put me at ease, showed me a bit how it worked. Quickly. I can’t ask him for everything, it’s up to me to discover things too”, recounted Koné, still as serene as ever.
He also spoke frankly about his qualities, “a fairly versatile midfielder” there to “answer the questions of a midfielder: recovering balls, feeding my attackers, with my technical ease”.
“I know that in my position there is competition, it’s up to me to show my qualities and do what it takes to try to come back. I tell myself there is no pressure, if I am here it is because I deserve it, that I play 5, 20, 45 minutes or even a match, with humility, it will work”, promised the new Bleu midfielder. It’s starting well.
eba/smr
