{"id":8281,"date":"2026-05-15T22:57:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/?p=8281"},"modified":"2026-05-15T22:57:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:27:52","slug":"mbappe-and-dembele-lead-france-world-cup-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/?p=8281&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe and Dembele Lead France World Cup Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Kylian Mbappe<\/b> and <b>Ousmane Dembele<\/b> will lead a star-studded France attack after <b>Didier Deschamps<\/b> announced his 26-man squad for this summer&#8217;s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Only <b>Olivier Giroud<\/b> (57) has scored more than <b>Mbappe&#8217;s<\/b> 56 goals for France, with the <b>Real Madrid<\/b> forward expected to captain his country despite recent struggles with a thigh injury.<\/p>\n<p><b>Dembele<\/b> scored 35 goals and won the Champions League with <b>Paris St-Germain<\/b> last season but is yet to score at a World Cup despite featuring in the past two squads.<\/p>\n<p><b>Crystal Palace&#8217;s Michael Olise<\/b> and <b>Dembele&#8217;s PSG<\/b> team-mate <b>Desire Doue<\/b> complete an exciting attacking quartet while <b>Lyon<\/b> playmaker <b>Rayan Cherki<\/b> and <b>Arsenal<\/b> defender <b>William Saliba<\/b> are among seven Premier League-based players in the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Full-back <b>Lucas Hernandez<\/b> and midfielder <b>N&#8217;Golo Kante<\/b> join <b>Mbappe<\/b> and <b>Dembele<\/b> as the only survivors from France&#8217;s 2018 World Cup-winning group.<\/p>\n<p><b>Deschamps<\/b>, who has led France to back-to-back World Cup finals, has made a few surprise calls ahead of his final major tournament as head coach.<\/p>\n<p>There is no place in the squad for <b>Real Madrid<\/b> midfielder <b>Eduardo Camavinga<\/b> or <b>Tottenham&#8217;s Randal Kolo Muani<\/b> \u2013 both of whom were involved in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><b>PSG<\/b> goalkeeper <b>Lucas Chevalier<\/b> also misses out, with uncapped <b>Lens<\/b> goalkeeper <b>Robin Risser<\/b> joining <b>Brice Samba<\/b> as back-up to <b>Mike Maignan<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Eintracht Frankfurt&#8217;s Hugo Ekitike<\/b>, who suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in April, is a notable, but expected, absentee.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a squad. Not necessarily the 26 best players. It&#8217;s about balance and how the team comes together,&#8221; <b>Deschamps<\/b> told French TV channel TF1.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can imagine how disappointed [<b>Camavinga<\/b>] must be. He&#8217;s coming off a tough season where he didn&#8217;t play as much and suffered injuries. [But] I&#8217;ve got decisions to make and a squad to put together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>France will begin their campaign against <b>Senegal<\/b> in New Jersey on <b>16 June<\/b>, with further Group I matches against <b>Iraq (22 June)<\/b> and <b>Norway (26 June)<\/b>.<\/p>\n<h3>France World Cup Squad<\/h3>\n<p><b>Goalkeepers:<\/b> <b>Mike Maignan<\/b> (AC Milan), <b>Robin Risser<\/b> (Lens), <b>Brice Samba<\/b> (Rennes)<br \/><b>Defenders:<\/b> <b>Lucas Digne<\/b> (Aston Villa), <b>Malo Gusto<\/b> (Chelsea), <b>Lucas Hernandez<\/b> (Paris St-Germain), <b>Theo Hernandez<\/b> (Al Hilal), <b>Ibrahima Konate<\/b> (Liverpool), <b>Maxence Lacroix<\/b> (Crystal Palace), <b>Jules Kounde<\/b> (Barcelona), <b>William Saliba<\/b> (Arsenal), <b>Dayot Upamecano<\/b> (Bayern Munich)<br \/><b>Midfielders:<\/b> <b>N&#8217;Golo Kante<\/b> (Fenerbah\u00e7e), <b>Manu Kone<\/b> (Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach), <b>Adrien Rabiot<\/b> (AC Milan), <b>Aurelien Tchouameni<\/b> (Real Madrid), <b>Warren Zaire-Emery<\/b> (Paris St-Germain)<br \/><b>Forwards:<\/b> <b>Maghnes Akliouche<\/b> (Monaco), <b>Bradley Barcola<\/b> (Paris St-Germain), <b>Rayan Cherki<\/b> (Lyon), <b>Ousmane Dembele<\/b> (Paris St-Germain), <b>Desire Doue<\/b> (Paris St-Germain), <b>Michael Olise<\/b> (Crystal Palace), <b>Kylian Mbappe<\/b> (Real Madrid), <b>Jean-Phillipe Mateta<\/b> (Crystal Palace), <b>Marcus Thuram<\/b> (Inter Milan)<\/p>\n<p>#FranceSquad #WorldCup2026 #Mbappe #Dembele #DidierDeschamps #FootballNews #LesBleus #SquadAnnouncement #FrenchFootball #WorldCup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele will lead a star-studded France attack after Didier Deschamps announced his 26-man squad for this summer&#8217;s World Cup. Only Olivier Giroud (57) has scored more than Mbappe&#8217;s 56 goals for France, with the Real Madrid forward expected to captain his country despite recent struggles with a thigh injury. Dembele scored [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}