Dembélé forfeits, Deschamps summons Coman and validates the return of the “banished”

Monday, day of withdrawals from the French team. After Wesley Fofana (knee), replaced by Benjamin Pavard, it is the turn of Ousmane Dembélé (hamstring) to give up the last meeting of the Blues in 2024. The Parisian “offers” a chance of return to Kingsley Coman. The Bayern Munich winger, little used during the Euro, had not been called up since the adventure in Germany.

This return of the Munich player, coupled with that of the Milanese, is not a coincidence in the mind of Didier Deschamps. The latter, who faces the reconstruction of a France group decimated since the Euro (retirement of Griezmann and Giroud, absence of Mbappé, injury to Tchouaméni…), acknowledges the returns of Coman and Pavard by sending the signal that 'he has not forgotten them. It’s a strong gesture for the last meeting of the year. If he had called other elements in place of these two men, who weigh 57 and 54 selections, or 111 caps in total, Deschamps would have had difficulty “recovering” them mentally in 2025. After the Euro, Coman (28 years old) would have asked questions about his international future, when Pavard (28 years old) recently reiterated his desire to return to Blue.

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The experience of Pavard and Coman counted for Deschamps

The situation has changed and in a group looking for a new balance, the experience of the Pavard-Coman duo also counts in the coach's thinking. With a match expected in Milan on Sunday against Italy, for what looks like a revenge of the September demonstration (1-3 victory for the Italians at the Parc des Princes), Deschamps saw fit to recall the two players in his quest of leadership in the French locker room. It remains to be seen whether they will have a card to play on the field. On the Pavard side, there are doubts. On the Coman side, it is very probable.