Ousmane Dembele out of France’s Squad

CAIRO – 24 August 2017: French manager, Didier Deschamp, announced France’s squad list on August 24 ahead of their two matches against Netherlands and Luxemburg in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.

Deschamp selected a 24 player squad without including Borussia Dortmund’s star player Ousmane Dembele and Real Madrid’s striker Karim Benzema.

According to ESPN, Deschamp stated that Dembele was not picked due to him not training with his club in the last two weeks. While, Benzema remains unpicked by the manager since October 2015.

The following players were selected to represent the French national team in the upcoming games in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers as reported from ESPN:

Goalkeepers: Alphonse Areola, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda

Defenders: Lucas Digne, Christophe Jallet, Presnel Kimpembe, Laurent Koscielny, Layvin Kurzawa, Djibril Sidibe, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane

Midfielders: N’golo Kante, Thomas Lemar, Blaise Matuidi, Paul Pogba, Adrien Rabiot, Corentin Tolisso

Forwards: Kingsley Coman, Nabil Fekir, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Alexandre Lacazette, Kylian Mbappé, Florian Thauvin

France will play against Netherlands on August 31 before facing Luxemburg on September 3 in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.