Player Focus: Checking Up on France's Class of Turkey 2013

In a country that highly prizes national team honours at any level, France’s victory at the Under-20 World Cup was far more than an impressive footnote for their players’ fledgling careers. It was, as L’Equipe said on the morning after the penalty shoot-out victory over Uruguay in the final, “historic”.

Such an eye-catching triumph was always destined to bring responsibility with it as the new season dawned; a theme recognised by FFF co-ordinator (and now under-21 coach) Willy Sagnol in the run-up to the tournament, telling the players: “You have to be examples. You’re being watched, and you don’t have room for mistakes.”

Following that up at club level was always going to be hard. The Under-20 World Cup final took place on July 13, by which point all Ligue 1’s clubs had been back in training for almost two weeks, and were less than a month away from the new season. Florian Thauvin, Lucas Digne and company would be attempting to firmly establish their reputations while playing catch-up from the start and fighting fatigue.

Life at the tournament in Turkey had been straightforward. “It’s simple,” one anonymous player told L’Equipe at the time. “We eat, we play on the games console, and we sleep.” Now, they would be marked men whilst having to deal with contracts, possible transfers and being expected to make their presence felt amongst the big boys.

Seven months on, it’s a good time to assess where these young hopes are. Paul Pogba’s acceleration into an indisputable starter at Juventus is undoubtedly the group’s outstanding performance of this campaign – at 20, he has already surpassed last season’s total of 18 Serie A starts, most recently at the expense of local hero Claudio Marchisio. In this campaign Pogba has managed 20 starts, 6 goals, 5 assists and a WhoScored average rating of 7.74 to date.

Back in Ligue 1, it was inevitable that some of the pick of the squad from Turkey would be the subject of big-money transfers. Kurt Zouma’s 10-match ban for the tackle that seriously injured Sochaux’s Thomas Guerbert in November blighted his season, but his considerable maturity at just 19 still saw Chelsea seal a deal for him in January – loaning him back to Saint Etienne for the remainder of the season. Zouma has been composed this season, receiving no cards apart from that red at Sochaux for the Guerbert tackle and completing 84.2% of his passes. When at centre-back, his preferred position (he has also played in both full-back berths), Zouma averages a rating of 7.1.

A trio of Zouma’s colleagues from the summer’s group were involved in far more controversial moves in the immediate aftermath of the tournament. Florian Thauvin, having signed for Lille in January 2013 and subsequently stayed for the rest of the season on loan with Bastia – in a similar move to Zouma’s – successfully agitated for a move to Marseille without playing for Les Dogues at all. Midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia activated his €20m release clause at Sevilla to join Monaco, much to the La Liga club’s chagrin, and Mario Lamina also joined Marseille on deadline day in September, with Lorient coach Christian Gourcuff threatening to quit after claiming the midfielder was sold without his knowledge or consent.

Due to the particularly protracted and sticky nature of his move, Thauvin has been under the closest scrutiny. French website Les Cahiers du Football even ‘awarded’ him their Ballon du Plomb 2013 (‘Leaden Ball’) for having “planted a new landmark in the history of footballing mercenaries by wanting to break his contract (with Lille) before he had even began to honour it.”

The toll on Thauvin was clear. He only made his Marseille debut in mid-September, and then only lasted 54 minutes against Toulouse as he was clearly short of fitness. He has made up for it since, however, starting 17 times in Ligue 1 and registering 6 goals and 3 assists. His passing could do with work (78.2% success) but his dribbling marks him out, showing why Lille could turn a €10m profit on a player who never officially wore their colours.

Thauvin has completed an average of 1.8 dribbles per game in Ligue 1 and – significantly – 2.5 per game in the UEFA Champions League. This fearlessness has singled him out as a wild card for Brazil 2014. His new teammate Lemina, more of a work-in-progress, has started just 7 times to date.

Kondogbia always faced a tougher task to assimilate at Monaco, despite coming from a stronger league competition. His late start left him with a clear disadvantage when already competing against seasoned internationals including Jérémy Toulalan and João Moutinho for a place. On the surface he has struggled, starting just 8 Ligue 1 games to date, but he is settling. Before Christmas, the 21-year-old made an average of 31.45 passes per game, had 0.45 shots per game and made 1.45 tackles. In his 5 games since the winter break. Kondogbia has made 53.6 passes per game, mustered 0.8 shots and an impressive 3.2 tackles – going past his Sevilla figures of 2.8 per game last season. It will be enough to keep him in the France senior squad for Brazil.

Others, more sure of their places with their club sides, have experienced their own peaks and troughs. France’s captain from Turkey, Samuel Umtiti, has started 18 of Lyon’s 25 Ligue 1 matches, having not been ready to play until mid-September after returning from the World Cup with a thigh injury that quickly flared up. Despite only turning 20 in November, Umtiti is a key player in Lyon’s defence.

His WhoScored average rating has dropped to 6.89 (7.08 last season), but his anticipation is his biggest attribute. Strong in the air despite only measuring 181cm and an accurate passer, Umtiti rarely dives in, making just 0.9 fouls per game and picking up just 1 yellow card and 1 red this season.

Jordan Veretout has perhaps shown the strongest signs of fatigue, only showing gentle signs of building on an excellent season opening with Nantes, which incorporated his goal in the impressive September win at Rennes. Among his 79.6% pass accuracy have been a modest 1.3 key passes per game.

Fellow 20-year-olds Lucas Digne and Alexy Bosetti would welcome the chance of tiredness; the former has started just 9 Ligue 1 matches since his €15m move from Lille (albeit for an impressive 7.52 average with 90% passing success) while Bosetti has scored 3 times in just 5 starts.

It was always clear that France’s Under-20s were in for a tough season. Yet the manner in which they have dealt with the challenges ahead, on the whole, suggests that Les Bleus have an exceptional crop to safeguard their future.

Which of France's U20 World Cup winning squad has impressed you the most this season? Let us know in the comments below