FRANCE CAN DOMINATE EUROPE AND THE WORLD FOR YEARS TO COME


                        FRANCE CAN DOMINATE EUROPE AND THE WORLD FOR YEARS TO COME

They were tipped as one of the favourites before the world cup and the French team duly delivered on the world stage. French manager Didier Deschamps became just the third person to win the World Cup as a player and manager with Brazil's Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer, after captaining France to the World Cup in 1998. It wasn’t only Deschamps who created history; Kylian Mbappe became the first teenager to score in a World Cup final since Pele in 1958.
This was a very young French squad. The average age of the French squad was 26 years, which made it the 2nd youngest squad at the tournament, behind Nigeria. Out of the 23 man squad there are only 5 players older than 28 years; Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda,  Adil Rami, Steven Nzonzi  and Oliver Giroud. It says a lot about the talent the French have at their disposal, that the likes of Karim Benzema, Anthony Martial, Aymeric Laporte, Adrien Rabiot,  Dimitri Payet, (who would most likely have made the squad if not for an injury picked up at the Europa league final) all failed to make the squad. Players of this quality would have walked into the first team of many teams at the World Cup.
This is a fantastic opportunity for the squad to kick on and win the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship and also the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Many of the youngsters in the team will be approaching their peak between 2020-2022. This puts the current French generation on the path of success. I believe the key to the accomplishment of the squad lies in the fact that it is more of a collective effort than an individual. A lot of the French players are playing football at the highest level and as we all saw in Russia, they played with a maturity beyond their youthful years. The squad showed hunger, determination and collectiveness, if they can repeat this over the next 6-8 years, they have the possibility to become one the greatest international sides.
After the heartbreak of two years ago, losing the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship on home soil, France have had a taste of Footballs Holy Grail (The World Cup) for the first time in 20 years. They have a chance to emulate the class of “98” by winning the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship and can go one notch further by winning the 2022 world cup in Qatar. With the quality of the current generation, it’s not an impossible task.

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