The suspense will be lifted this Wednesday, November 9. The coach of the French football team, Didier Deschamps will reveal his list of 26 players for the World Cup in Qatar. Jonathan Clauss hopes to be one of the lucky ones, the defender of Olympique de Marseille, originally from Osthoffen (west of Strasbourg) would thus join the list of rare Alsatians to have played in a football world cup.
Eight players selected
The last to have known this honor is Morgan Schneiderlin. Zellwiller’s child
was drafted for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. He played a pool match, the third, against Ecuador (0-0) in the legendary Maracana stadium.
Much longer ago, the guardian Albert Rust participated in the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 with midfielder Bernard Genghini. The native of Soultz had already been there four years earlier in Spain, where he formed the magic square with Platini, Tigana and Giresse. The adventure had stopped in the semi-final against the Germans in Seville.
Racing legend, striker Gerard Hausser played with the Blues in the 1966 World Cup in England. The defender Raymond Kaelbel and the guardian Francois Remetter competed in the World Cup in 1954, then in 1958 where they finished third in Sweden. Between the two wars, Fritz Keller in 1934 and Oscar Heisserer in 1938 had been the precursors.
Other Alsatians have come very close to this great happiness, in particular Léonard Specht and Marc Keller.