FRANCE NAME SQUAD FOR FRIENDLIES AND WC QUALIFIER

The French national team has named the squad that would prosecute friendly games against Paraguay and England and their important clash against Sweden in a World Cup qualifier.


Coach Didier Deschamps named Alphonse Areole of PSG, Benot Costil of Rennes and Spurs top choice Hugo Lloris in goal. Lloris is the favourite to start after an impressive run for his club in the Premier League.

AS Monaco defender Benjamin Mendy make the defenders’ list alongside Kurt Zouma of Chelsea, Christophe Jallet of Lyon, and Samuel Umtiti of Barcelona. Recovering centre defender for Real Madrid Raphael Varane was included in defence, as with Presnel Kimpembe of PSG and Laurent Koscielny of Arsenal. Lucas Digne of Barcelona and Djibril Sidibe of Monaco were also named.

In the middle, PFA Player of the Year and France Player of the Year N’Golo Kante was named. World transfer record holder Paul Pogba would line up alongside Corentin Tolisso of Lyon, Moussa Sissoko of Tottenham, and PSG duo of Adrien Rabiot and Blaise Matuidi. more

BALOTELLI ACCUSED BASTIA FANS OF RACISM

Former Inter Milan, Manchester City, AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli has accused the fans of Bastia of racism.


The Italy international, who moved to play in France with Nice on a loan deal, posted messages of his experience against racism on his Instagram handle.

“Yesterday the result against Bastia was right…we will work more and try to get our objective..the referee was good too but I have a question for French people…Is it normal that Bastia supporters make monkey noise and ‘uh uh’ for the whole game and no one of the ‘commissions discipline’ say nothing?,” Balotelli posted.

“So racism is LEGAL in France? Or only in Bastia? Football is an amazing sport..those people like Bastia supporters make it horrible,” he added. more

Didier Deschamps says that there is every opportunity for Hatem Ben Arfa

France manager Didier Deschamps says that there is every opportunity for Hatem Ben Arfa to feature in the national team before the Euro 2016 starts.

The former Newcastle United winger has been in fine form for French outfit Nice. Once regarded as the next Zidane, his career has gone off the rails in the last few years. Ben Arfa went down to the level of playing for Hull City, who are in the Championship. However, a loan move back to France appears to have rejuvenated him and he has been in impeccable form over the first few months of the season.

Ben Arfa has already notched the seven league goals in just 10 games. Even though the club have not been able to benefit fully from this form,Hatem Ben Arfa is starting to get noticed once again at international level. Since he enjoyed a great reputation almost a decade ago, it helped the 28-year-old to quickly notch up 13 appearances for the national team. However, he has not featured for France at any level since the 2011-12 season when he made five appearances. Such has been his decline in form, butDeschamps has seen enough in the player to suggest that he may be ready for the national team once more. more