France Call-Ups for the June Euro Qualifiers

I’ve been put off writing this because… Well, honestly, it’s because my heart is completely shattered. No Patrice Evra on the list. What’s up with that?

Coach Raymond Domenech apparently prefers Julien Escudé, with his ability to switch-hit between left back and central defense. Okay, yes, I adore Escudé too, and he impressed the heck out of me when he played leftback against Austria. But Raymond? Patrice scored a Champions League goal playing RIGHT back. How’s THAT for switch hitting? (Of course, I could have scored against Roma that day, but let’s not cloud the issue.)

The big news of players not included: No Evra, no David Trézéguet, no Philippe Mexès. Trézéguet’s not a big surprise, alas, but no Mexès? What’s going on there? What did I miss? Mexès was the guy that Lilian Thuram all but annointed as his successor on the NT. I thought he did fine when he played first half against Austria, but then he was subbed out, and now he’s not called up. Granted, central defense is the position I generally don’t notice unless they do something either dramatically great or dramatically awful, but still… Did he have the wrong astrological sign or something? Did Raymond think his lovely blond highlights didn’t look natural? Or maybe he joined the ranks of players who hit on Estelle Denis? Can somebody clue me in here?

There are three goalkeepers called up this time, with Fiorentina’s Sébastien Frey returning from international exile to join Coupet and Landreau.

It looks like Francois Clerc will get the nod to replace the injured Willy Sagnol at rightback as expected. His backup will be Bakary Sagna of Auxerre. (This is totally irrelevant, but does anybody know the background of M. Sagna? When I googled him I came up with three different spellings for his name — Bakary, Bacari, Bacary — which often means that the original language has a phonemic basis, like Arabic. Not that it matters, I’m just always linguistically curious.)

No big surprise in the midfield except for the return of Lyon’s Alou Diarra. Last I heard, wasn’t Alou playing for the Lyon RESERVES? Domenech apparently likes him a whole lot more than Lyon’s Gerard Houllier does. And Abou Diaby and Lassana Diarra got the return nod, but Bordeaux’s Rio Antonia Mavuba didn’t. (I agree with the choice. Mavuba looked a little shaky to me in the last go-round. But good luck next time, Rio.)

And Samir Nasri and my personal favorite young gun Karim Benzema may get the chance to reprise their winning roles from the Austria game. That could be fun.

Nicolas Anelka and Djibril Cissé are again called up. No surprise there, and I expect them to start, with Benzema getting subbed in at some point during at least one of the games. Sidney Govou is also called up, listed as an attaquant, which does surprise me a little. He just hasn’t impressed me the last few times I’ve seen him play.

And our last new player is twenty-one-year-old striker Jimmy Briand of Stade Rennais, a player about whom I know very little. I’ll see if I can’t do some research and come up with a profile and photo before the games.

Complete team list after the jump.

Liste des joueurs sélectionnés

Gardiens de But
23 Grégory COUPET Olympique Lyonnais
16 Sébastien FREY A.C.F. Fiorentina
1 Mickaël LANDREAU Paris SG

Défenseurs
3 Eric ABIDAL Olympique Lyonnais
13 François CLERC Olympique Lyonnais
21 Julien ESCUDE F.C. Seville
5 William GALLAS Arsenal F.C.
12 Bakary SAGNA AJ Auxerrenouveau
17 Sébastien SQUILLACI Olympique Lyonnais
15 Lilian THURAM F.C. Barcelone

Milieux de Terrain
2 Abou DIABY Arsenal F.C.
18 Alou DIARRA Olympique Lyonnais
4 Lassana DIARRA Chelsea F.C.
6 Claude MAKELELE Chelsea F.C.
7 Florent MALOUDA Olympique Lyonnais
11 Samir NASRI Olympique de Marseille
22 Franck RIBERY Olympique de Marseille
8 Jérémy TOULALAN Olympique Lyonnais

Attaquants
39 Nicolas ANELKA Bolton Wanderers
20 Karim BENZEMA Olympique Lyonnais
14 Jimmy BRIAND Stade Rennais nouveau
9 Djibril CISSE Olympique de Marseille
10 Sidney GOVOU Olympique Lyonnais