France coach Raymond Domenech has left Juventus striker David Trezeguet out of his provisional 30 man squad named today. Yet it’s no real suprise to see him omitted, Trezeguet’s star has certainly been fading over the last couple of seasons and looking at the strikers that the coach has named, it’s hard to argue for his inclusion. His appearances since France’s defeat in the World Cup Final have been sporadic to say the least and this season has seen several young strikers put markers down for their international inclusion.

 

Whilst Frances 3rd highest all time goalscorer with 34 goals in 71 appearances seems to watching his international career wind down, the exciting young St Etienne powerhouse Bafetimbi Gomis has been included for the first time. I am genuinely excited by this player, who shows all the attributes of becoming one of the new world stars for French football. If you’ve not seen him, the obvious comparision is with Didier Drogba, with the same hair and similar build encouraging people to unsuprisingly name him ” The new Drogba”. He has been in fabulous form all season and along with Djibril Cisse, comes in to the end of the season bang in form. Thankfully we get live French league football on Sentanta in the UK so I’ve seen a fair bit of him this season and he’s sensational.

All things considered, he may still miss the cut, looking at the number of strikers in the team, with 10 players named who can play up front but Gomis is one of only 4 true strikers, alongside Henry, the rejuvinanted Djibril Cisse and Nicolas Anelka and the only full equipped target man in the frame. He deserves the chance of this tournament, his 16 goals have been crucial in getting Les Verts back into European competition and he could be the crucial player to get them out of the Group of Death. “This is not a surprise as we have been following him for a while now and he fully deserves to be in this provisional squad,” said Domenech

France Provisional squad
Goalkeepers: Grégory Coupet (Olympique Lyonnais), Mickaël Landreau (Paris Saint-Germain FC), Sébastien Frey (ACF Fiorentina), Steve Mandanda (Olympique de Marseille).

Defenders: Willy Sagnol (FC Bayern München), Lilian Thuram (FC Barcelona), William Gallas (Arsenal FC), Eric Abidal (FC Barcelona), Patrice Evra (FC Manchester United), Jean-Alain Boumsong (Olympique Lyonnais), François Clerc (Olympique Lyonnais), Julien Escudé (Sevilla FC), Philippe Mexès (AS Roma), Sébastien Squillaci (Olympique Lyonnais).

Midfielders: Alou Diarra (FC Girondins de Bordeaux), Mathieu Flamini (Arsenal FC), Patrick Vieira (FC Internazionale Milano), Claude Makelele (Chelsea FC), Jérémy Toulalan (Olympique Lyonnais), Lassana Diarra (Portsmouth FC).

Strikers: Franck Ribéry (FC Bayern München), Florent Malouda (Chelsea FC), Sidney Govou (Olympique Lyonnais), Samir Nasri (Olympique de Marseille), Hatem Ben Arfa (Olympique Lyonnais), Nicolas Anelka (Chelsea FC), Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona), Karim Benzema (Olympique Lyonnais), Djibril Cissé (Olympique de Marseille), Bafétimbi Gomis (AS Saint-Etienne).