FEATURE | Is Rennes’ Esteban Lepaul an outside shout for France’s World Cup squad? | OneFootball

Esteban Lepaul (25) is in red-hot form. The Stade Rennais striker has scored in four of his last five games in the league, and his goals have Franck Haise’s side, who currently sit fifth, looking up the table. “Of course, we can target higher. We’re only three points away [from Olympique de Marseille in third]. Of course, the Champions League is attainable,” he said after he opened the scoring in a 4-0 rout of OGC Nice on Sunday afternoon. 

Lepaul currently has the most non-penalty goals in Ligue 1. Only OM’s Mason Greenwood (15) and RC Strasbourg Alsace’s Joaquín Panichelli (14) have scored more than the Rennes striker this season, but in each of their cases, five of those goals have come from the spot. Lepaul had the chance to net his first penalty of the season but fluffed his lines against Nice, with Yehvann Diouf guessing the right way. “I’m annoyed with myself,” admitted the former SCO Angers striker in a mixed zone interview attended by Get French Football News. 

However, Lepaul remains one of the most prolific Frenchmen in recent months. Since January 2025 and his breakthrough at Angers, Kylian Mbappé (44) is the only Frenchman to have scored more goals than Lepaul (21) in Europe’s top five leagues. The latter is level with Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembélé, who won the Ballon d’Or back in September. 

Lepaul ‘not thinking about’ France call-up

Yet his name is not in the conversation for the France national team. Responding to a question from GFFN, Les Bleus are not in Lepaul’s thoughts either. “This isn’t something that I’m thinking about. I’m fighting to reach the objectives that I set myself at the start of the season. What happens at the end of the season is not my motivation,” said the Rennes forward.

He added, “I want Rennes to finish as high as possible in the league, score as much as possible, and help the club reach its European objectives. That is all I’m thinking about.” There could be a reason for hope, however. Despite many of France’s talents being exported internationally, particularly to the Premier League and Bundesliga, Didier Deschamps also has a close eye on Ligue 1.

Since the start of 2025, Deschamps has selected 11 different players from France’s domestic league, whilst the selection of Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta also shows that there is a place to force your way in through form, regardless of age and where you play. There are even stylistic similarities between Mateta and Lepaul, with both falling into the ‘fox in the box’ category. 

Lepaul ‘on track’ to reach his objectives

Competition, however, remains fierce in the forward line, even if there are growing doubts over Marcus Thuram, who, often shoved out on the left, has never shone for Les Bleus. In 31 games for France, he still has just two goals. He continues to shine for Inter Milan, but that is part of a two-man attack that Les Bleus do not deploy. 

Lepaul told us that he is “on track” to reach his personal objectives this season. He insists that making a breakthrough into the national team set-up isn’t one of them, but it would be merited. The league have branded the SRFC forward as the “French Jamie Vardy”, which perhaps underappreciates the scope of the latter’s achievement and at a much later stage in his career, but there is an element of Lepaul perhaps being overlooked due to that late breakthrough. But just because, at the age of 24, he was warming the Angers bench doesn’t mean that, at the age of 26, he shouldn’t be boarding a flight to North America with the rest of Les Bleus

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Nice