The 26 players selected by Didier Deschamps for the World Cup took part in the last training session at Clairefontaine on Tuesday.
Barely time to put down his suitcases that he must already leave. The 26 players of the France team selected for the 2022 World Cup lived, Tuesday, November 15, their second and last day at Clairefontaine. On the eve of taking the plane to Doha, the players took part in a real collective training session.
Not a single player missed the call this time. Monday, during the first session, only five players had touched the ball: Jules Koundé, Ibrahima Konaté, Ousmane Dembélé, Alphonse Aréola and Eduardo Camavinga. Good news after weeks of doubts fueled by a cascade of injuries. Karim Benzema, he only participated in fifteen minutes of jogging. He then left training, accompanied by Cyril Moine, to continue with indoor work. Nothing abnormal according to the staff of the Blues, “it does what was intended”. During the day, the latter appeared reassuring, in his words and in the tone he used in front of the camera, at the microphone of the L’Equipe channel.
A little later in the session, just before the tactical opposition, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Raphaël Varane and Aurélien Tchouaméni also left the session. During this small match, which was much more than that for Ousmane Dembélé, celebrating the slightest goal as a victory, Christopher Nkunku received a blow in a duel with Eduardo Camavinga. The Leipzig player limped off the pitch just before the final whistle.
The players benefited from the support of a hundred people seated in the stands, not stingy with songs and drumbeats. A Marseillaise even sounded at the end of the session. This small crowd, mostly made up of children, were rewarded for braving the temperamental drizzle with a lengthy signing session, which delayed the start of practice by nearly 30 minutes.
Before defying the rain, which they shouldn’t see again by the end of December, players and staff spent most of the afternoon attending to media obligations. In “robot mode”, the head of communication of the Blues, Raphaël Raymond, played the conductors to try to stall between “60 to 80” interviews in less than three hours of time. Everything had to be completed quickly since the hours of the Blues at Clairefontaine were numbered. Wednesday, at 10:30 am, they will be 45 (26 players and 19 staff members) to take off from Le Bourget in the direction of Qatar.