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Didier Deschamps has an awkward question to answer: should he drop the Ballon d’Or holder?“If I start playing just to prove all of my critics wrong and to shut them up, I think I’d have to keep playing until I was 80,” said Kylian Mbappé as he wrote his name in the history books, surpassing Olivier Giroud as France’s all-time top scorer. He insists that his 57th and 58th goals for the national team – which secured a 3-1 win over Senegal in their World Cup opener – were not about “revenge”. But they were at least a response.Mbappé is not someone who does all his talking on the pitch. Speaking before Euro 2024, he referred to himself in the third person as he announced his opposition to far-right politicians. “Kylian Mbappé is against extreme views and against ideas that divide people,” he said two years ago. I want to be proud to represent France. I don’t want to represent a country that doesn’t correspond to my values, or our values.”The France captain made similar comments in the buildup to this World Cup. This time, his objection to the far right drew criticism from Michel Platini, who told Mbappé to remain politically neutral. “You are playing for all French people,” Platini said. “Once you take a stand, you fall out with half of the world.”Deschamps says that when Mbappé speaks, he knows he does so “for all the players” and his viewpoint is shared by the dressing room. It doesn’t make him popular, however. Polling shows that Mbappé’s popularity is on the slide and has been since his exit from Paris Saint-Germain two years ago. He is acutely aware of public perception. “I am hated enough as it is,” he replied when asked about becoming the president of his country.Before he even considers a political career, he has a World Cup to win. France’s dual-executive, semi-presidential system nicely encapsulates Mbappé’s predicament on the pitch: he needs a prime minister who will support rather than stymie him. An Mbappé-Ousmane Dembélé government would be an awkward cohabitation. Dembélé has excelled since moving into the No 9 position at PSG under Luis Enrique, winning the Champions League twice and the Ballon d’Or. At international level, though, that position is already taken.Having previously been picked on the wing, Dembélé has been given a run through the middle in recent games, albeit in a No 10 role. He was ineffective in the position in France’s warm-up match against Northern Ireland and again against Senegal in their opener. Only Mbappé (37) had fewer touches than the PSG forward (40). The failure, granted, was a collective one; France failed to muster a single shot on target in the first half. Dembélé’s blocked long-range effort was their only shot at all.At club level, Mbappé, Dembélé, Michael Olise and Désiré Doué scored 97 goals between them last season and, including assists, were involved in 157 goals. Given the attacking potential in the team, there was clearly a bug in the system against Senegal.Deschamps identified it at half-time. Dembélé was moved out to the right and Olise brought into the middle. The manager explained his decision: “We were a lot better when Michael was positioned in the middle. I did it because I thought it would provide more of a link. Michael can play on both sides, but the more he gets on the ball, the better.”Specifically, it is better for Mbappé. Olise would be the candidate of choice in Mbappé’s hypothetical government. To borrow an American perspective, Olise is the quarter-back and Mbappé is the runner, frequently found. As the Bayern Munich forward threaded the ball through for Mbappé to open the scoring, Dembélé could be seen advising a more conservative backwards pass. But Mbappé knew the pass would come and Olise knew the run would be made.While different in profile, Olise is essentially the replacement for Antoine Griezmann. The former Atlético Madrid forward is the player with whom Mbappé has played most at international level (83 times). No player has provided Mbappé more assists than Griezmann. His retirement from international football left a void but it is now being filled.Their combination was key to unlocking a game that, for more than an hour, provided plenty of cause for concern for Deschamps. France lacked creativity in midfield and variety in attack. Dembélé, Olise and Doué all wanted to occupy the same areas and there was a lack of forward runs from the wide players. Deschamps opted to start Doué, more technically gifted, rather than Bradley Barcola, a direct runner who stretches defences. Barcola’s goal from off the bench could provide Deschamps with food for thought before the Iraq game next Monday.This is a team built around Mbappé and the win against Senegal justifies his stature as the centrepiece of a highly talented attacking armada. At 27, he has already made history. He is not only France’s all-time leading scorer but, with 14 goals at World Cups, he has also surpassed Just Fontaine’s record for goals at the tournament. As he prepares to win his 100th cap, he provides assurances that others simply do not, as talented as they may be.“Even if he can’t have a great game, in one action he can make his team win,” said Deschamps after the Senegal win. Mbappé is the exclamation mark at the end of moves; his long-range finish to seal the game was just his fourth from outside the box in a France shirt. He is gradually becoming the traditional No 9 that France have lacked since Giroud’s retirement – a fox in the box.As a result, he needs service and Olise is the one who provides it. It leaves difficult questions about Dembélé’s position and, perhaps, even his place in the team. The reality may be uncomfortable but the decision is being taken out of Deschamps’ hands. It is France’s dual-executives, Mbappé and Olise, who will be the difference between success and failure.This is an article by Get French Football News

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The tournament favorites were far from their best in their first half against a strong Senegal side. Their star forward made sure things finished fineAfter the whistle blew for half-time, Kylian Mbappé ran to the player tunnel at a good clip, followed by Ousmane Dembélé. Behind them, the rest of the French team were in no such hurry, sauntering off the pitch. The forward widely considered the best in the world – or at least the most famous in the Non-Ronaldo-and-Messi Division – and the reigning Ballon d’Or winner had much to discuss.The scoreless first half Tuesday against a Senegal side who had organized and pressed cohesively and forged much the better chances, including a clipped post, was a disjointed mess for the 2018 World Cup champions and the 2022 runners-up. But having the world’s best corps of forwards means getting to comprehensively beat the (former) African champions 3-1 despite spending the first hour looking like your front four had never played together before. And possibly didn’t even know one another’s names.Because France have Mbappé. And Dembélé. And Michael Olise.It seemed there was little connective tissue holding the French attack together in the first half. Olise roamed every which way from his right flank, once nearly traveling to the other touch line just to get involved in the play, but couldn’t figure out how to affect the game. Désiré Doué hardly factored on the left. And then there was the slapstick series of misunderstandings between Dembélé, playing in the pocket, and Mbappé up front.The latter was nearly sprung in the fourth minute, served by Adrien Rabiot – French manager Didier Deschamps’ longtime and much-maligned pet playmaker. Mbappé received the ball with his right ass cheek, which evidently lacked the suppleness of his feet. He exchanged several hopeful balls with Dembélé, but their partnership never quite seemed to produce any real peril for the Senegalese defense, which enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of casual work on a sunny day that was neither hot nor humid.Olise, sticking to the right for once, eviscerated El Hadji Malick Diouf late in the first half and set off into the vacant corridor. He and Mbappé seemed to lock eyes but never entirely worked out who was going where. Nothing was working.Mbappé and Dembélé, the main protagonists up the middle, were having a very miserable time, gesticulating at one another, willing the other to just read their minds already. The French looked every bit like a team with an innately defensive manager who had set up his attackers in positions or roles they don’t play for their clubs. They were a collective in search of ideas and solutions, aware that they were far too good to look this bad.And yet. The Senegalese pressed and cut right through the French lines to create several good chances. Nicolas Jackson’s shot off Mike Maignan’s near post followed an Mbappé turnover upfield. When Mbappé lost the ball yet again on a hideous turnover, a French journalist in the press box could no longer contain himself. “Oh la la la la la laaah,” he moaned. Really.“From time to time, you do have a rough start,” Deschamps said. “It’s quite hard to meet the high expectation at a World Cup.”Whatever message was delivered at the intermission worked. So too did switching Olise to the middle and Dembélé to the right. Deschamps’ men dialed up their intensity and finally managed to slip the right sprockets into the correct gears around the hour mark.Olise was denied by Senegal keeper Édouard Mendy. So was Mbappé. And Sadio Mané was spared what seemed a stone-cold penalty kick on Mbappé, when even the assistance of VAR could not convince referee Alireza Faghani to make the right call.No matter. In the 64th minute, Olise spun into space centrally and rolled a beautiful through ball against the grain for Mbappé, who couldn’t quite get a toe to it. Nonetheless, they had found another at last. Proof of concept.Two minutes later, the two connected for much the same play. Mbappé made a run across goal and Olise found him with a splendid diagonal pass, paced and placed just so. Mbappé slotted past Mendy. The goal equalled Olivier Giroud’s all-time France scoring record at 57.After a smashed finish from Jackson was ruled offside, Rabiot scampered into the vacant midfield on a break in the 82nd minute and sent Bradley Barcola, fresh on to the pitch for Dembélé, through on goal and the substitute finished with a delicate chip.The 18-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye blasted Senegal on to the scoreboard, but Olise and Mbappé had one final treat for the 82,000 congregants in New Jersey. At the death, Olise fought through a Senegalese scrum and fed Mbappé up the middle about 30 yards from goal.And then Mbappé did the sort of thing that makes a nation pin its hopes on you, that moves children to beg their parents for your jersey, that compels a manager to leave you on the field even when you’ve had an objectively ugly game. He turned and, without any questioning or compunction about the propriety of even trying such a thing, unloosed a shot that swerved past Mendy. Fifty-eight international goals. 3-1.“He told me that he didn’t want to strike in a friendly match but wanted to score in a real match,” Deschamps joked about Mbappé’s record-setting goals. “He wanted to do it here.”No Frenchman on the field will remember this game as one of their best. Senegal, meanwhile, were good. Very good at times. And still. Mbappé. And Olise. Also Dembélé. The sorts of players who give their side, and themselves, a vast margin for error.“Kylian was efficient, ruthlessly efficient,” Deschamps said. “People will still criticize him. He’s an iconic player, I’ve always said that. He can sometimes miss a game but on one action he can really tip the scales.”There were smiles and hugs now. Mbappé led Les Bleus to the sea of French fans to thank them for their support. The first-half grimaces, all the poor touches, the passes played to the wrong foot, the routes misread, the signals crossed, all of it long forgotten.The French would be just fine. Because they have, well, all of them.

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This was an ominous start from the World Cup favourites. A sputtering first-half performance gave way to a second period characterised by a combination of physical intensity and technical ability that few club sides, never mind nations, can match. Add on a record-equalling, then surpassing, couple of goals for Kylian Mbappé and some superlative playmaking from Michael Olise and this was very much a job well done for Les Bleus.After Mbappé tucked away a superb Olise pass just after the hour, a match that had started as a keenly fought contest faded away into a procession.The substitute Bradley Barcola doubled the lead in the last 10 minutes before a chaotic period of added time gave Senegal brief hope before a second goal for Mbappé, his 58th for France, which made him his country’s all-time leading goalscorer, ahead of Olivier Giroud.With numerous New York Knicks players in the stands of the MetLife Stadium there was a golden aura lingering over proceedings before kick-off.The best openings in the first 25 minutes, or hints thereof, went to France, Ousmane Dembélé almost threading a pass to Mbappé in the box in the 11th minute, only for the captain to fail to get the ball under control. There was some casual chest control from Kalidou Koulibaly in the 14th minute that ceded possession dangerously, but ultimately to no harm to Édouard Mendy. In the 24th minute, the former Chelsea keeper was nearly robbed on the edge of his own box by Dembélé but just held on.After surviving this initial scrappy passage, Senegal began to assert themselves more and created the first chance proper in the 25th minute.A sliding tackle from El Hadji Malick Diouf seized possession and his quick ball sent Nicolas Jackson clear down the left. He sped into the box and got his shot off which hit the inside of the near post and a diving Mike Maignan was fortunate to see it deflect wide off his heel.The hydration break followed almost immediately and after that Senegal were the better side, composed off the ball and increasingly dangerous on the break. Just before half-time they should have taken the lead, but after Sadio Mané ghosted into the France box and laid the ball off, Ismaïla Sarr made a poor contact and his shot sailed over the bar.France were lacking a clear attacking identity, but also a physical intensity and it was no surprise to see them return after the interval fired up and more assertive off the ball. Desiré Doué got his first shot off immediately after the restart but bent the ball around a post. Five minutes later the Paris Saint-Germain forward started his own break that almost put Mbappé through, only for the ball to be taken off his toe.Then Olise had his moment, a turnover in midfield resulting in the Bayern Munich winger clear one-on-one with Mendy, only for the keeper to make a crucial sprawling save. Four minutes later and, this time, Olise sent Mbappé clear but again Mendy was out to get a crucial contact on the shot.By the hour mark the game had decisively changed, France were the dominant team and a goal felt like it could arrive at any minute. So when Mbappé burst down the right and forced Mané into a sliding challenge inside the box, there was a collective holding of the breath. The referee, Alireza Faghani, awarded a corner, video replays seemed to suggest a foul, but after Faghani was directed towards the monitor, he chose not to change his mind to the surprise of almost everyone in the ground.The decision, however unusual, did not affect the direction of this match as Olise and Mbappé continued to purr. Almost immediately Olise burst through the middle of the pitch and slipped a ball beyond the Senegal defence which Mbappé just could not reach. No matter, because the next time the ball came to Olise, around 30 yards out, he bisected two lines of the opposition with a superlative pass cutting right to left across the field. Coming left to right, meanwhile, was Mbappé. He beat everyone to Olise’s pass, turned back on himself and slotted a first-time shot into the net with consummate ease.Jackson had a couple of efforts for Senegal after the opener and blazed one of them into the top corner only to be ruled offside. But the sense that this contest had been decided was strong as Les Bleus continued to play at a level their opponents couldn’t reach.Dembélé was withdrawn for Barcola, a closer for club and country, and he eliminated all doubt when running on to another diagonal through ball, this time from Adrien Rabiot who had burst through the growing gaps in midfield, and chipped calmly past Mendy.The game may have been decided but there was more action to come in a frenetic period of added time. First, the substitute Ibrahim Mbaye slammed in a shot which Maignan could not stop. Then Mbappé, not to be outdone, blasted one from range too, which Mendy might have done better with. One down, seven more to go.

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There are some fixtures that need only the names of the teams to get us going and France v Senegal is one such, a meld of nostalgia, history and righteous indignation. “I think Senegal will win,” says Othmane Sonoko, former prime minister and speaker of the Senegalese parliament, “but in any case, whichever team wins, it is Africa that will have beaten Africa.”The teams, of course, met in the World Cup 2002 opener, a game which featured one of the great centre-forward displays from El-Hadji Diouf and one of the great celebrations following Papa Bouba Diop’s goal, which secured one of the great shocks. Nor did things improve for France thereafter, eliminated bottom of the group with one point and no goals, the worst-ever performance from a defending champion. The teams have not met since.But as Sonoko implies, they remain inextricably linked. France began colonising Senegal in 1659, it wasn’t until 1960 that independence was retaken, and it was less than a year ago that France gave up the last of its military bases. No country has more World Cup players born within its borders than France, who account for 98 of the 1248 – Netherlands are next with 67, then England with 49 – of which 10 are representing Senegal.And what a squad they’re part of, Senegal solid at the back, but a lot more interesting further forward. Lamine Camara is a dynamic midfielder who blends old school new, able to do a bit of everything but at warp speed and is, presumably, soon to arrive at a Premier League team near you; alongside him, Pape Matar Sarr is already there, and there are various excellent candidates to complete the trio, as well as 18-year-old Bara Sapoko Ndiaye of Bayern Munich, likely to be kept in reserve but a very serious talent. Then, up front, Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr will presumably flank Nicolas Jackson, with Iliman Ndiaye and Ibrahim Mbaye ready to explode off the bench. If you’re gently whistling to yourself, fear not: so you should be.In 1863, when various bodies in England were trying to standardise the laws of the game, a dispute developed regarding the banning of “hacking”, deliberately kicking an opponent’s legs – a point on which Francis Maule Campbell of Blackheath Football club took a strong position. “You will do away with all the courage and pluck of the game,” he said, “and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week’s practise.”Well, the 2026 iteration are more than able to take care of themselves should things become physical – just ask Fede Valverde – but boast perhaps the most ridiculous cadre of attackers ever seen. Whether Didier Deschamps can perm the best combination from those available – perhaps – then allow them to express themselves – almost definitely not – remains to be seen, but at any point, both of those aspects can be overriden by talent of intense and divergent brilliance.If there’s one thing the games we’ve seen so far have taught us, it’s that we’ve no idea from where our eternal moments are coming, just that they are. So it feels vaguely silly to be make a bold statement about this one, but the piquant ingredients make it the likeliest banger of the group stages, and decent barometer of where these exciting outfits are it. Chauette! On y va!

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From Sparwasser being the toast of East Germany to Cameroon’s rumbling of Argentina, the finals are littered with upsetsCape Verde’s stunning draw against Spain produced some incredible statistics. The Spaniards had 27 attempts on the goal of the 40-year-old Vozinha and completed 734 passes compared with Cape Verde’s 205. It was an unbelievable rearguard action from a side ranked 61 places below their opponents, who had just named the oldest starting XI of the tournament with an average age north of 31 years.It will no doubt enter World Cup lore as one of the greatest displays of dogged defending the competition has seen. To celebrate, here is a look back at some of those magic moments when underdogs truly had their day.In the only competitive fixture played between the football federations of a Germany divided by the cold war, East Germany embarrassed their hosts in Hamburg. A Jürgen Sparwasser goal ensured both teams progressed to the next group stage, with West Germany going on to become world champions.Cuba arrived in France with a skeleton squad of 15 players, but shocked the world by reaching the quarter-finals. After drawing 3-3 with Romania, they won a second match between the sides 2-1. Incredibly, Cuba’s first-choice goalkeeper, Benito Carvajales, opted not to play in the replay because he had received a lucrative offer to do radio commentary on the match instead. Sweden ended their dream with an 8-0 thumping in the next round.In their first appearance at the tournament since 1958, Northern Ireland faced the hosts, Spain, in Valencia needing a win to progress. Step forward Gerry Armstrong, who smashed home the winner after Luis Arconada could only parry a Billy Hamilton cross. After Mal Donaghy was dismissed, Billy Bingham’s 10 men held on. After a draw against Austria in the second group stage, defeat to France sent Northern Ireland home.When South Africa were banned and South Korea withdrew, North Korea were left with the task of beating Australia to qualify for the finals, setting up a historic moment at Ayresome Park. Pak Doo-ik’s goal defeated a star-studded Italy, sending the Azzurri home to a reception where they were reportedly pelted with tomatoes. North Korea progressed to the quarter-finals and even took a shock 3-0 lead against Eusébio’s Portugal before sliding to a 5-3 defeat.Morocco became the first African side to top a World Cup group and reach the knockout rounds in Mexico. Considered heavy underdogs in a brutal group featuring England, Poland and Portugal, Morocco eked out goalless draws against the first two. They then secured a historic 3-1 triumph over the Portuguese to book a second-round match with West Germany, which they narrowly lost 1-0 to a late Lothar Matthäus free-kick.France entered the tournament as reigning world and European champions, boasting a glittering squad. Senegal, who gained independence from France in 1960, were making their World Cup debut and featured a squad almost entirely based in the French leagues. Papa Bouba Diop scored the only goal after 30 minutes. Senegal marched all the way to the quarter-finals, while the French squad spectacularly imploded, finishing bottom of the group without scoring a goal.Goals from Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi ensured Algeria became the first African side to beat a European team at a World Cup finals. Unfortunately, because final group matches were not played simultaneously, West Germany and Austria were later able to manufacture a mutually beneficial 1-0 German win in the “Disgrace of Gijón” that sent both European teams through at Algeria’s expense, despite them also beating Chile.Legend has it that when the score was transmitted back to newspapers in London from Brazil, editors assumed the score was a transcription error. It wasn’t. The Haiti-born forward Joe Gaetjens scored the only goal for an American team made up mostly of part-timers. England’s first foray into the World Cup ended in humiliation and they went home chastened after defeat to Spain.Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.The upset to end all upsets. It wasn’t just that Argentina were world champions. It wasn’t just that expectations of African sides were low at the time. It wasn’t just that it was Cameroon’s fourth match at a World Cup finals. It was that Cameroon were already down to 10 men when François Omam-Biyik netted and were reduced to nine men after Benjamin Massing took a somewhat agricultural approach to defending the lead. There was nothing Diego Maradona could do about it.

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With France captain in spotlight at team hotel and in home press, head coach tries to pull focus ahead of World Cup opener against SenegalSince France arrived at their World Cup base in Boston last week they have been a regular source of fascination for locals. Crowds of mostly young people have formed outside Les Bleus’ downtown hotel to cheer the team as they leave for training. All the players are met with pleas for waves and autographs, but the roar that meets Kylian Mbappé is of a different order altogether.Mbappé is one of a small number of contemporary footballers whose names have cut through with the US public (though he is not yet a mononym, unlike Messi). As France begin their quest for a third World Cup he is inevitably the focus back home too, not least after giving an interview to Le Parisien at the weekend in which he denied ambitions of one day becoming president of France, saying: “I’m hated enough as it is!”For Didier Deschamps, the question of how to handle the Mbappé phenomenon is one of many that require striking a delicate balance. Fortunately, the 57-year-old has some experience in the demands and contradictions of leading a top international team. Speaking on the eve of their Group I opener against Senegal, with all the extra distractions of 2002 and all that, the French head coach was set on turning down the temperature.Deschamps has been steadfast in his support for his captain in the buildup to the tournament as Mbappé’s public opposition to far-right politics in France has led to criticism from figures such as Michel Platini. Mbappé was not present at France’s pre-match press conference, with N’Golo Kanté speaking instead. Deschamps denied this had anything to do with any public remarks or controversy, but also said: “My priority is to protect my players.”Asked whether the extent of Mbappé’s fame meant he had to take a different approach to managing him, Deschamps did not demur. “I speak to [Mbappé] very often and he’s a world-famous player even in the US but it’s his life,” he said. “He manages himself. Kylian is Kylian. The younger generation, the less younger, love him everywhere in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s not normal when he plays and when he’s in the group. This has got nothing to do with why he is not here today.”Only four members of the squad that won the World Cup in 2018 remain, Mbappé and Kanté among them. Another is the reigning Ballon d’Or, Ousmane Dembélé, who is also the focus of pre-tournament expectations, with the hope he can bring his club form to the international stage, where he has seven goals from 59 caps. Here, the messaging from Deschamps is different, as he chose to lower any pressure on the Paris Saint-Germain forward. “Ousmane is concerned and concentrated like all the other players, but there clearly is a desire to be very good and to be decisive, just like he is regularly with his club, PSG,” he said.Dembélé has been given extra time to recover from last month’s Champions League final, with Deschamps adding intriguingly that his place in the team against Senegal would be dependent on “physical and probably more importantly psychological” considerations. “If he’s at his top level it will be a plus for the French squad,” he said.All the individual deflections add up to a cumulative approach from Deschamps as he enters his final tournament as French head coach: he wants to dial down any suggestions that his team are the favourites to win this World Cup. “France has the ability to win … but so do six or seven other nations,” he said. “The way there is going to be hard. Of course, France has high-level potential because of the results it has produced over the last two World Cups. We’ve also got many high-quality players for whom this will be their first World Cup. And so I don’t want to paint the French squad as better than the others.”Deschamps eventually left the bowels of the New York New Jersey Stadium looking relaxed, and feigned shock when told in parting that his training session that afternoon would be, briefly, open to the media. Much of his team may not have seen anything like this World Cup before, but the coach and his key lieutenants are accustomed to the scrutiny.

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The midfielder on providing the balance to allow attacking stars to shine and wanting a fitting World Cup sign-off for DeschampsFrance will look a little different this summer. “Naturally, it seems a bit more attacking than usual,” Adrien Rabiot says. “I think it is good because we have the players for it.” Lucas Hernández adds that France have “the best attack in the world” and Rayan Cherki talks about “crushing” opponents at the World Cup.Rabiot says: “I think that we have one of the most well-equipped teams in an attacking sense. We have real threats from the start but also from the bench and that is very important in a World Cup … it is great to have all of this quality.” If France seem more attacking, it is because they are.In his final tournament as Les Bleus’ manager, Didier Deschamps has taken nine forwards, including a new “Fab Four” consisting of the captain, Kylian Mbappé, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé, the mercurial Michael Olise and the silky Cherki. Add to that Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Maghnes Akliouche, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Marcus Thuram, and you have an unrivalled attacking armada. The aim, in Deschamps’ words, is to be “less predictable, less readable”.But beware. Arsène Wenger says that “the danger is becoming a bit offensively unbalanced”. Rabiot shares the former Arsenal manager’s sentiment and expects to play his part in being part of the solution. “I have spoken with the manager and my role on the pitch with France is different to that which I have at Milan [where he is a box-to-box player]. At this level, balance plays a big part.”Rabiot’s task is primarily to allow others to shine rather than stealing the limelight himself. “We all have a role. You have to be humble about that,” he says. “I try to do my work as well as possible to allow the players in front and behind to perform as well as possible … attackers and goalscorers are valued more than midfielders or defenders. There is no problem about that.”It is a role that N’Golo Kanté is accustomed to playing, not that it has stopped him from earning plaudits. “There are players who play an important role but who are maybe promoted less. That’s the case for N’Golo. He gives everything when he’s on the pitch. Even if he isn’t always the best player, he is someone who has that desire, that determination to give everything.”At 35, Kanté is now rarely a starter, but that doesn’t prevent him from being “a very important player in the team”, according to Rabiot. The ground covered by the former Chelsea and Leicester midfielder once allowed attackers to be absolved of defensive duties. Football has changed. “Nowadays, it can’t just be nine or 10 players defending. You need everyone. You’ve seen it recently in the Champions League. Those that make the effort, all together, go furthest. We need a whole team that knows how to attack and knows how to defend. That’s modern football. You have to recognise that,” says Rabiot.The Milan midfielder, capped 59 times for his country, speaks more of “accompanying” the attackers, “providing a link between the attack and defence”, allowing them to “express themselves” and giving them “freedom”; a facilitator more than simply a compensator, the difference is subtle but important. If Deschamps has released the handbrake, Rabiot is there to keep control of the car.And Rabiot has discerned a shift. “In training, there is this freshness, this technique, this enthusiasm,” he says. Its importance transcends the pitch: “What makes this squad work well is the ability to be able to express oneself. Everyone has free rein to [show] their talent. In training, we really have a great time together, and that is the most important thing in a long competition.”France’s stay at their base in Boston is not expected to be a short one. Les Bleus have been to the past two finals. Rabiot, 31, missed out in 2018, but was involved in the defeat against Argentina in Qatar in 2022. “Since then, we have wanted revenge,” he says.Rabiot adds that victory in North America would also be “a beautiful homage” to Deschamps, who will leave his post at the end of the tournament. He is “very close” to Deschamps, despite his omission from the 2018 World Cup squad. Rabiot was selected as a reserve for the tournament in Russia but refused the position.It would be more than two years until his next call-up, but since his return in September 2020, he has been an ever-present; of the players in the current squad, only Mbappé and Kanté have played more matches during Deschamps’ reign. Even when Rabiot was cast out at Marseille at the start of the season after a dressing-room incident with his teammate Jonathan Rowe, he was still selected. “I’m taking him for who he is, what he has done with us and what he can bring us. It is always good for him to be with us,” Deschamps said.“The manager has given us a lot,” Rabiot says. “For the most part, he has selected us often; he has shown confidence in us in the big competitions – it is obviously an objective for us to pay him back for that.”In the Guardian’s recent interview with Deschamps, the France manager expressed a lack of interest in notions of “legacy” and perception as he heads into his swan song. It is a topic of greater concern to Rabiot. “You always want to finish on a good note; it is the image that you leave that lingers longest in the mind.“I think, in France, people don’t realise what the France national team has achieved in these past few years. I think people abroad are more admiring, quite simply because they want it to happen to them.“And I think that if they had a manager like Deschamps, who has had as many results as he has, they would be extremely happy. I don’t think you should get used to [the levels of success] because it isn’t normal … sometimes we have highlighted how things happened too much instead of looking at what actually happened.”Substance over style: that defines the Deschamps era. Rabiot, one of his most tried and trusted, embodies that too. Leave the style to the attackers, Rabiot is simply there to facilitate it.