the list of 18 players selected for the Olympics unveiled!

It is finally the end of a long ordeal for Sylvain Ripoll. While France had finally won the right to compete in the Olympic tournament again after its last experience in 1996 in Atlanta, the national coach had all the trouble in the world to find players. Indeed, if several famous players such as Kylian Mbappé or Jules Koundé had expressed their desire to be present in Tokyo, most of the clubs decided to retain his flock.

Blame it on an overloaded schedule (like Monaco, which resumes very early for the preliminary round of the Champions League) and the desire of certain teams not to see players already embarked in international competitions (Euro, Copa América) coming back too late. Before constraints which had consequences for Ripoll (who had until June 30 to announce his list of 22 + 4 reservists).

Beautiful people anyway

The latter has rejected the announcement of the list twice already and had to request a waiver in order to be able to call players who were not on the pre-list of 50 names filed in May. That is to say ! In the end, the coach of the Espoirs was able to find 18 names. And it is confirmed, André-Pierre Gignac, Florian Thauvin and Téji Savanier will be well on the trip to Japan. Note that Eduardo Camavinga, Maxence Caqueret and Amine Gouiri are also present.

Sochalien Maxence Prévot is the only reservist. As a reminder, the French will start the Olympic tournament with a match against Mexico (Thursday July 22), then South Africa (Sunday July 25) and finally Japan (Wednesday July 28).

Guardians:

Defenders:

Environments :

• CAMAVINGA Eduardo (Rennes)

• CAQUERET Maxence (Olympique Lyonnais)

• IKONE Jonathan (Lille)

• SAVANIER Téji (Montpellier)

• THAUVIN Florian (Tigers)

• TOUSART Lucas (Hertha Berlin)

Attackers:

• GIGNAC André-Pierre (Tigers)

• GOUIRI Amine (OGC Nice)

• KOLO MUANI Randal (FC Nantes)

• NORDIN Arnaud (AS Saint-Étienne)

The 1️⃣8️⃣ players (and one reservist) selected by Sylvain Ripoll to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games, which will be held from July 21 to August 7, 2021 🇫🇷

Subject to validation by the CNOSF Olympic Selections Advisory Commission pic.twitter.com/avUnPANUSm

– France team ⭐⭐ (@equipedefrance) June 25, 2021