After the 3-1 win over Clermont in the last round, the Boralte Dryley Stadium was still full, and everyone was waiting for the celebration of the team's leading defender, Jonathan Cross.
In the 89th minute, Lens, who had already sealed the victory, replaced Cross, and he was greeted by warm applause from the audience. At the final whistle, the entire Team Lens and tens of thousands of fans celebrated Cross's first selection for the French national team, and the new France international waved the French flag and enjoyed the hard-won glory moments.
In the new roster announced by the French team on March 17, the 29-year-old Cross was called up for the first time by Deschamps to realize his dream of the national team.
Until then. Cross has also never played a single game for the French echelon at all levels. This season, Cross has scored four goals and assisted nine times, making him the most goalscored in the five leagues and the most goalscored by Lens. Entering the national team is not only an honor for him to become a late bloomer, but also a reward for diligence. From the fifth division to the French national team, his counterattack story is really moving.
Born in Strasbourg in eastern France, Cross joined the academy of his hometown club ASPV Strasbourg, but was abandoned after 10 years with his parent team, when his dream of becoming a professional player was almost shattered. It can be said that Cross's path to the top of his career has not been very smooth.
After leaving his native France, he joined Germany's sixth-division team, SV Links. Despite being an amateur team, this experience helped Cross a lot in his future career, and developing a fluency in German also set the stage for important transfers in the future.
Over the next three years, he went to two different French amateur clubs. In 2016, the 24-year-old Cross moved to Ligue 1's Avranches, and after spending a season in Ligue 1, Cross signed his first professional contract with Quiveri Rouen of Ligue 2.
Despite the relegation spell for the Normandy team, Cross stood out with eight assists and, combined with his german language skills, soon won a transfer to Bielefeld. In the 2019/20 season, Cross scored 5 goals and assisted 10 times, helping Bielefeld return to the Bundesliga as champions. Cross, whose contract expired, chose to return home to join promoted Malance, playing in the top flight for the first time at the age of 28.
In the 2020/21 season, Cross, as the absolute main force of Lens, scored 3 goals and assisted 6 times, and Lens also soared all the way to the seventh place in the league. In the summer of 2021, Cross received the attention of a number of other giants, but he finally chose to stay.
178 cm tall and 70 kg, Cross plays as a right wing-back and right-wing forward. As the heart of Lens's right, Cross has an excellent attacking attribute, his passes and crosses are powerful, and he has averaged 2 successful crosses per game this season. In addition, Cross's ability to combine sides and middle is also more prominent. Although there is no very delicate dribbling technique, Cross's ability to hold the ball is not short, and he can often be seen sprinting forward with the ball to create a threat during the game.
His Twitter account is Djoninho25, and it's easy to see that he's not willing to be an ordinary right-back. Sometimes he's like Brazil's legendary Cavo, juggling the defensive job at the back while also providing the team with plenty of opportunities to push forward. With Lens boss Esther placing Cross at right wing-back, these characteristics became even more prominent, and his goals and assists performance came naturally.
As a wing-back, Cross averaged 2 interceptions per game and 1.7 steals defensive stats. Of course, the grassroots Kroos still has a lot of flaws, as a winger from a reformed wingback, Cross has a big gap from the top in terms of defensive basic skills and consciousness, and there are also some problems with position sense and defensive concentration. In one-on-one defense, he also has a higher rate of turnover.
In fact, the call to call Cross into the national team has been very high since the beginning of the season, and even distracted Cross, who once fell into a number of downturns in the pre-season mid-season.
Cross: "It's not a physical problem, it's more a mental problem. "He admitted that speculation that he would be recruited by Deschamps distracted him." I forced myself not to do it and talked to my girlfriend about it. At one point, she told me that it's not just the weak who cry. It was a good thing for me and I slept well that night. Next time, I will cry without hesitation. Now, Cross, who was first recruited by Deschamps, can finally get his wish.