Midfielders
Lassana Diarra (Marseille), Geoferry Kondogbia (Inter Milan), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Maxime Gonalons (Lyon), Mathieu Valbuena (Lyon) and Samir Nasri (Manchester City)
Former Real Madrid player Lassana Diarra, was part of the initial squad named by Deschamps, but he had to pull out of the team because of an injury and Morgan Schneiderlin was named as his replacement.
Promising young midfielders Geoffery Kondogbia and Adrien Rabiot are two notable names missing from the final roster. Kondogbia has represented the senior team before, but his move to Inter last summer hasn’t helped his international career. On the contrary, Rabiot has done brilliantly for PSG recently and is knocking on the first team door.
Lyon’s captain Maxime Gonalons is another central midfielder who didn’t make the cut. Gonalons has represented the senior team on seven occasions with the most recent call-up coming last year against Albania.
Mathieu Valbuena meanwhile was part of a sex-tape scandal which put a huge stain on France’s football team and he hasn’t been selected since the incident. Samir Nasri was also a regular for France earlier, but Deschamps opted not to call-up the controversial midfielder for the World Cup. Nasri later opted to retire from the team as long as Deschamps is in charge.
