What are they injecting into the French youth system at the moment? I'm literally just going to list the names and leave it at that: Kingsley Coman, Anthony Martial, Ousmane Dembele, Moussa Dembele, Kylian Mbappe. And those are just the attackers...
Young French Talent
- Thread starter Mr Smith
- Start date
Cycles. And Clairefontaine.
Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Courtois, Dembele, Vertonghen.
Bunch of Spanish world class talent.
England's 'Golden Generation'.
It's France's turn now.
Hazard, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Courtois, Dembele, Vertonghen.
Bunch of Spanish world class talent.
England's 'Golden Generation'.
It's France's turn now.
France has always had an abundance of talent, mainly due to the pool of players they get globally perhaps, but their lack of success in recent years is more down to the inability to play as a team
Vanessa Paradis, singing "Joe Le Taxi"...
When I was about 15, she was the best "Young French Talent" around..
When I was about 15, she was the best "Young French Talent" around..
In my opinion one of the main factors is that France has a pool of players who, due to factors such as immigration, come from multiple parts of the world and opt to play for France - I think all of those players you listed have parents who emigrated to France from a different country - which is quite unique.
When you have a larger pool of players to choose from, the chances of you finding quality players increases.
This also applies for Germany, Holland & Belgium too.
When you have a larger pool of players to choose from, the chances of you finding quality players increases.
This also applies for Germany, Holland & Belgium too.
How is the pool bigger? They are all born in France.
Comes and goes in cycles. Eight years ago it was the Spanish. Now its the French.
My phrasing is off, i'm not implying that they're not French, just that it's a varied pool of multiculturalism brought about by immigration.
Meh france have always had people migrating from Africa etc. So I don't think this is the reason. I think the reason is more or less a result of their WC victory in 1999 i think it was. It created a boom. Young children and parents saw that people like Zidane could rise from poverty to fame with hard work and dedication. The WC victory probably also created a boom where the clubs became better at developing young talents. I don't know for sure but the goverment most likely poured more money into football and talent development
might be their junior coaching systems focus on ball control and fun and the kids are coming out of that process well prepared for the step into youth systems. For as long as I can remember the French have produced skilful, technically gifted players and I have been watching since the 60's. The French football ethos has always valued skill, flair and technique.
The DTN changes happened before that and were done by Houiller.
I'm not saying it's the only reason, just one of the reasons why France continues to enjoy fairly consistent levels of success on the international stage.
France is such a multicultural country that any investment into youth football will hit 1st & 2nd generation immigrants, as well as French citizens who have resided for multiple generations.
I see. Well it could be that coaches and managers got better football educations at youth level. Much like you see in holland. Holland is not a large country yet they still manage to produce many talents. Some of the best coaches in history have been from Holland so it's probably not a coinsidence. Also the french league has become sort of like what the dutch league is. A great place for young talents to get a lot of playing time at a pretty good level
Something you might have to take into account, most are from Iles-De-France.
I'm not sure what the relevance of that is, is that a particular town or region?
Like England you mean?
England has a great pool of players coming through in the 15-19 age group.
Perhaps not as good as this French one but very talented all the same.
Sancho, Gomes, Foden, Sessengnon, Rashford and Chris Willock have great potential as well as a couple of Chelsea's players although I am less familiar with them.
Perhaps not as good as this French one but very talented all the same.
Sancho, Gomes, Foden, Sessengnon, Rashford and Chris Willock have great potential as well as a couple of Chelsea's players although I am less familiar with them.
It's the region of Paris and most of them are from the Suburb. Football and Martial Arts are the main activities for the youth and that's also where immigrants tend to live.
Most of the current English squad are born in England, raised by English parents, English grandparents etc. I think we'll see more of a similar thing in the next generation of English players though.
Oh okay then it makes sense why most migrants would want to populate in that area, similar to London.
Not quite sure where you've been for the last 30 years but there have been plenty of English players whose roots were with former British colonies, Caribbean etc. Unfortunately for England, India and Pakistan are not renowned for their footballing talent.
France are up there with Brazil in terms of having a never ending conveyor belt of talent coming through. Brazil are fairly pants now but make no mistake that a few more sensations will emerge from there soon and they will be back on top again.
Maybe in France kids only play either Rugby or Soccer as opposed to England where some kids may also play hockey/basketball/cricket/Tennis/Snooker/Darts instead.....I dunno.....It's just nuts how many technical world class youngsters they produce compared to England. Surely the FA has similar school of excellence in England that can rival Clairefontaine?
Maybe in France kids only play either Rugby or Soccer as opposed to England where some kids may also play hockey/basketball/cricket/Tennis/Snooker/Darts instead.....I dunno.....It's just nuts how many technical world class youngsters they produce compared to England. Surely the FA has similar school of excellence in England that can rival Clairefontaine?
France is capable to produce a high number of elite players for 2 main reasons:
- Demographic weight: 66 millions people (10 millions for Portugal, 47 for Spain, 60 for Italy, 80 Germany).
- The French League is relatively a poor league: the clubs are less inclined to take risks and recruit foreign players. A selling league that relies on his home-grown players.
---> Martial was replaced by M'Bappé in a manner of speaking.
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Percentages of foreigners per league
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- Demographic weight: 66 millions people (10 millions for Portugal, 47 for Spain, 60 for Italy, 80 Germany).
- The French League is relatively a poor league: the clubs are less inclined to take risks and recruit foreign players. A selling league that relies on his home-grown players.
---> Martial was replaced by M'Bappé in a manner of speaking.
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Percentages of foreigners per league
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- Premier League 64%
- Jupiler Pro League 60.,1%
- Ligan NOS 56.1%
- Gibraltar Premier Division 55.8%
- Scottish Premiership 53.2%
- Bundesliga 53%
- Serie A 52%
- Turkish Super Lig 51.8%
- Swiss Super League 49.2%
- Malta Premier League 44.9%
- Ligue 1 43.4%
- LaLiga 42,8%
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France has always produced expressive and talented players, its part of the French football ethos. Tigana, Platini, Fontaine, Papin, Kopa, Tresor, etc all from a long time ago.
This! Something so simple, but people insist on looking for other explanations.
I am English but my parents moved to the center of France in the beginning of the 90s to be farmers. I played roughly from the age of 7 to 16, from 1993 to 2002. This is the middle of nowhere in France, closest village was 3km away, closest city 30 kms away. It is 1993 and France have not qualified for the world cup 94, France are hosting the 1998 world cup, the FFF (French FA) are under pressure but they will deliver.
I am football mad and every village over there was as well and took football very seriously. The structure was the following:every 10kms you would have a football club with a team for your age group,no exceptions- since everyone played football the system worked as there were enough children for each age group https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3A9gorie_(sports)#Cat.C3.A9gories_en_football. We even had a Women’s team. To give you an idea my first club was in a village a of 1300 inhabitants and had 2 pitches: one to train on, one to play on. Everyone in my primary school played football and or did judo (hense why they usually get a few medals in judo at the olympics). Every kid would have to go training on a Tuesday/Wed and play on the weekend. The biggest event in the entire village would be the home game in Sat/Sun. The village would come together young and old you would get your merguez frite-miss merguez….- and a beer/hot chocolate and watch the games. From the age of 12 you would get tournaments organised a couple of times a year to scout for the talent and if you were good enough you would be brought in to train with the team of the “department”(french equivalent of county). I played for the department form the age of 13. The level was even higher and more competitive on the pitch as well as on the training ground.
What I ilked was that until the age of 13 all football games were played on a half pitches therefore you are tought to play on smaller spaces and it is more technical. You didn’t have to run the fastest or be the tallest to be the best. Parents would take it in turn to bring children to the away games, it was never a problem.
Basically we had great facilities to train and play, everyone would play football from a young age in a club, great trainers and scouts in the most remote areas. No stone unturned. If this was happening in rural france, you can imagine how things were in the rest of France and in the cities and how they have been buiding a strong teams generation after generation. Grassroots in France have been there for a long time and a re so important.
All this was in stark contrast to family friends that were livign in east anglia
I am football mad and every village over there was as well and took football very seriously. The structure was the following:every 10kms you would have a football club with a team for your age group,no exceptions- since everyone played football the system worked as there were enough children for each age group https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%C3A9gorie_(sports)#Cat.C3.A9gories_en_football. We even had a Women’s team. To give you an idea my first club was in a village a of 1300 inhabitants and had 2 pitches: one to train on, one to play on. Everyone in my primary school played football and or did judo (hense why they usually get a few medals in judo at the olympics). Every kid would have to go training on a Tuesday/Wed and play on the weekend. The biggest event in the entire village would be the home game in Sat/Sun. The village would come together young and old you would get your merguez frite-miss merguez….- and a beer/hot chocolate and watch the games. From the age of 12 you would get tournaments organised a couple of times a year to scout for the talent and if you were good enough you would be brought in to train with the team of the “department”(french equivalent of county). I played for the department form the age of 13. The level was even higher and more competitive on the pitch as well as on the training ground.
What I ilked was that until the age of 13 all football games were played on a half pitches therefore you are tought to play on smaller spaces and it is more technical. You didn’t have to run the fastest or be the tallest to be the best. Parents would take it in turn to bring children to the away games, it was never a problem.
Basically we had great facilities to train and play, everyone would play football from a young age in a club, great trainers and scouts in the most remote areas. No stone unturned. If this was happening in rural france, you can imagine how things were in the rest of France and in the cities and how they have been buiding a strong teams generation after generation. Grassroots in France have been there for a long time and a re so important.
All this was in stark contrast to family friends that were livign in east anglia
If a player like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo Nazario, Messi, will emerge away from South America, i expect it will be in France.
Good post, this is very true.
Also live in rural France, small villages.
My 7yo grandson trains for football on Tuesday night, Judo on a Thursday night and football matches on small pitches on a Saturday against similar clubs in the same area.
Very well arranged.
Isn't it the same in England?
We are better at Basketball than England, we have more highly ranked tennis players, we are not too bad at Handball and Volley-ball. I think that there is just a problem with the UK.
France U-25 team by L'Equipe:
I'm not denying that it happens, (Sturridge, Sterling, Welbeck etc more recently) but the majority of the French squad is made up of first generation French citizens, born to immigrant parents - that isn't comparable to the English squad currently.
Though like I said I can see this shifting in the next generations.
Fantastic team, even the bench is greatFrance U-25 team by L'Equipe:
Not that I noticed when I was in England but my children are both girls. Someone living in rural England may be able to enlighten us.
But I don't think it's down to the origin of the players, more to do with the training , facilities, basically grass roots football from a young age
You said your grandson trains once a week then plays once on the weekend. This isn't revolutionary stuff. It's the exact same in just about every country in the world including England. What exactly do you think they are doing in England?
I was commenting on the poster who said the same thing , I asked the question , I didn't state England don't do that, the poster said it wasn't the same in East Anglia. Jesse upsetting you still?
Yeah i'm not putting it down to simply the origin of the players, that's too simplistic, the facilities and training of course come into it too.
She used to get her kit off in nearly all of her films tooVanessa Paradis, singing "Joe Le Taxi"...
When I was about 15, she was the best "Young French Talent" around..
Maybe the fact they have considerably more sunshine in many parts of France than the UK and possibly a good bit less rain means more motivation for kids to go out and play in the good weather? Just trying to figure it out. I don't think the passion for the game or level of coaching is much different in either country. Could it be that living in a climate where you get considerably more sunshine be the main reasons? Monaco = 300 days of Sunshine per year. Manchester = 140 days of sunshine per year. I think that could be the answer right thereWe are better at Basketball than England, we have more highly ranked tennis players, we are not too bad at Handball and Volley-ball. I think that there is just a problem with the UK.
Although I get more sun than the Uk here by far, I've never seen so much rain in my life and during the summer it's so hot you can't play football