France 2026: 21 of 26 call-ups reflect Les Bleus' diversity | OneFootball

The French national team promises to be a major contender again at the 2026 World Cup. Runners-up in Qatar 2022 and champions in Russia 2018, Les Bleus dream of winning their third star under Didier Deschamps, who will bring his historic 14-year spell in charge to an end at this tournament. To take on Group I — where they will face Iraq, Norway, and Senegal, a country that was once a French colony — the coaching staff will present a squad that reaffirms its traditional cultural diversity: 21 of the 26 call-ups have roots in different corners of the world.

The multicultural trend remains strong in the current roster, which includes only three footballers born abroad: Brice Samba in the Republic of the Congo, Marcus Thuram in Italy, and Michael Olise in England. The Bayern Munich forward’s case is one of the most curious in the group, as he has a Nigerian father and a French-Algerian mother, and still does not speak French.

This integration model began with the home triumph at the 1998 World Cup under the slogan “Black-blanc-beur” (Black, white, and Arab). That squad, captained by Deschamps himself, featured players born in the Caribbean such as Lilian Thuram, others with Martinican ancestry such as Thierry Henry, and its biggest star, Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants. The makeup of that “rainbow team” was repeated in Russia 2018, where 14 of the 23 champions had direct ties to Africa, including Samuel Umtiti, Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kanté, Ousmane Dembélé, and a young Kylian Mbappé, who came from the Paris suburb of Bondy and has Cameroonian and Algerian roots.

Over the past three decades, the identity of the national team has been deeply entangled in French political debates. In 1996, far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen criticized the naturalization of players, calling them “representatives of paperwork,” which led Zidane to openly campaign against him in the 2002 elections, asserting his dual cultural pride. History repeated itself in 2024, when the Real Madrid star, along with teammates such as Jules Koundé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Marcus Thuram, spoke out publicly to stop the electoral rise of Marine Le Pen, daughter of the longtime political leader. With this social and sporting backdrop, France heads into 2026 determined to defend the values of its diversity on the pitch.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.