\n<\/p>\n
Over the last ten years, no other nation has been able to match France\u2019s sheer level of quality in tghe world of international football. They might not have won everything, but they have entered as favourites in almost every major competition during that timeframe. <\/strong><\/p>\n They\u2019re a little weaker this year compared to what they once were \u2013 the days of Paul Pogba, Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane are long gone. Today, we\u2019ve put together an XI of French players who likely won\u2019t feature at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n While France might not be at the peak of their powers any more, they\u2019re still a very threatening outfit \u2013 as such, some high-quality superstars could be set to miss out on the World Cup this year.<\/p>\n Alphonse Areola has been firmly pegged back by Mads Hermansen in the battle for West Ham United\u2019s number one shirt \u2013 if he cannot get a game for the Hammers, he is unlikely to be selected by Didier Deschamps.<\/p>\n That being said, Areola is certainly a capable goalkeeper. He\u2019s on the decline at 33, but can still put forth a respectable shift at the highest level of the game.<\/p>\n Nordi Mukiele has had a fantastic season with Sunderland in the Premier League, but with only one prior cap to his name for Les Bleus, he may struggle to make the final cut.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the 28-year-old has suffered with injuries as of late. Mukiele is a fine player, but there are simply too many factors working against his favour for him to be a realistic choice. <\/p>\n Leny Yoro\u2019s main issue is his age \u2013 with some elite, experienced options to pick from, Yoro is simply too young to be in the mix this year. <\/p>\n Furthermore, he hasn\u2019t been enormously impressive for Manchester United this season. Yoro\u2019s time will come, but the summer will come far too soon for him. <\/p>\n Clement Lenglet has plenty of pedigree, both at club and international level, but his lack of game time in 2025\/26 means he\u2019ll probably miss out on the World Cup this year.<\/p>\n As previously mentioned, Le Bleus have some fantastic options at centre-back. Having played in only 12 La Liga games for Atletico Madrid this season, we\u2019d be very surprised to see Lenglet in Deschamps\u2019 plans. <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last ten years, no other nation has been able to match France\u2019s sheer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GK: Alphonse Areola<\/h2>\n
RB: Northern Lights<\/h2>\n
CB: Leny Yoro<\/h2>\n
CB: Clement Lenglet<\/h2>\n