Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery received his first call-up for the France national team’s senior squad. Despite being 17 years old, Didier Deschamps believes the young player is ready.
The reason for the teenager’s call-up is due to Aurélien Tchouaméni’s foot injury. While there are other midfield options considering France’s position depth, Arsenal legend Thierry Henry notes that Deschamps made the right call.
“You showed me an image of the PSG players who told him to jump on it,” Henry told FFF TV (h/t Le10Sport). “I’ve never seen anyone jump like that. Before the image, he was in a particular position. The players come out. He is still in the same situation. He just blushed with no emotion; he was there calmly. He got up.
“Really happy for him because he deserves it, even if Tchouaméni is injured, but I think he is on the national team, not because there are injured people.”
Henry, coach of France’s Under-21 team, sees the talent in Zaire-Emery even though he’s still a teenager. The Frenchman made the midfielder the captain despite being the youngest player in the side.
Even so, if he continues playing at this level, Zaire-Emery can forget about playing for the youth teams and begin being regular with the first-team call-ups. Manager Luis Enrique gave the youngster the keys to the midfield, and right now, he won’t relinquish them.
France will face off against Gibraltar on Nov. 18 and then Greece on Nov. 21. It will be interesting to see how many minutes Warren Zaïre-Emery sees and whether he gets a start with France already qualified for UEFA Euro 2024.
