In recent European football, several young French centre-backs have frequently appeared in people's sights. The 22-year-old French centre-back Conart, who Wasles brought in by Liverpool for 40 million euros last summer, is one of the most eye-catching.
Since April 5, Konat has played three key matches as the starting starter, the two-legged Champions League quarter-out against Benfica and the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City last night, in which Konat scored a header in each of those three games. The height of 1.94 meters, coupled with his extremely strong physique and NBA player-like bouncing ability, makes Conat's advantage in aerial confrontation extremely obvious.
Not only Cornat, but in the last four or five years, young French centre-backs have sprung up and soaked the entire European football scene. In another game, Borussia Dortmund beat Wolfsburg 6-1, and Frenchman Zagadou, who was born in the same year as Conat, was the Hornets' main centre-back for the game and was emerging from the haze of injuries large and small over the past few years. On the side of the defeated Wolfsburg, there is also a young French player in the starting center-back, and Sochaux's youth training and former French U17 member Lacroix has been the main player of the team in the past two years.
French centre-backs are based on Bundesliga teams and are plentiful. In frankfurt's Europa League knockout match against Barca in midweek, the left centre-back of Frankfurt's three centre-backs was also French, and like Zagadu, the left-footed Ndicha, who was born in 1999, although Ndica was sent off for a second yellow card in stoppage time and almost gave Barca a chance for a big comeback, but overall he was better able to limit Dembele's play.
It has to be mentioned that Conat's two centre-back partners in france's U21 team, Yu Palmecano and Badiacil are also worth more than 40 million euros. The former, who was also teammates at Leipzig RB and Conata last season, was brought in by Bayern last summer for €42.5 million.
Monaco's academy player Badiacil is also a sweet potato in the transfer market, the tall left-footer, who has been focused on by the club in recent seasons and has become more and more stable in the game.
According to recent reports by well-known journalist Schilla, Juventus, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Leipzig RB are all keen to bring in the French centre-back, and he was also a target for Manchester United last summer, and his transfer fee is expected to not be less than 40 million euros.
Of the 26 top centre-backs, France accounted for nearly 1/4
According to the German transfer market network, among the French players, the center-back worth 10 million + (euros) reached 22, 20 million + there are 13 people, 30 million + there are 9 people, 40 million + there are also 6 players. In the entire international football world, there are only 26 central defenders who are more than 40 million in height, and the French center-backs account for nearly 23% of them.
Let's take a look at who the 12 most expensive French centre-backs are:
Marseille's main centre-back, born in 2001, rewarded deschamps for his first time wearing the French shirt in March, where he is of Cameroonian descent and currently worth $24 million;
The aforementioned Badiasil was born in 2001 and is currently worth 28 million in Germany, he is of Democratic Congo descent; Frankfurt centre-back, Ndicka, is also worth 28 million euros, he has Cameroonian ancestry;
Germany has three 30 million French centre-backs, with Le Nolmont from Real Sociedad being one of the few white players on this list, while Zuma and Conat are of Central African and Malian descent, respectively;
The Greater Paris centre-back Kimpembe and Leicester City defender Fofana (born in 2000) are worth 40 million, the former is also compatriots of Batyashil, and the latter is of Ivorian descent;
The 45 million-dollar Yupamercano is of West African descent from Guinea-Bissau, and his teammate Lucas Hernandez is third worth €50 million;
The two €60 million players are Varane and Conde, the two French centre-backs who combine physically, technically and speed best, with Manchester United players descending from Martinique (Caribbean) and Sevilla players descending from Benin.
Of the 12 most expensive centre-backs, 10 are of black descent and have an innate advantage in athleticism. As the well-known sports editor Teng Fei said, "It is not surprising that the French black center-backs have the advantage of physical fitness, coupled with the thinking and technical ability of the European youth training since childhood, they are outstanding." ”
French black centre-backs have a long history
The first black player in the history of the French national team was a defender, and the 1.87-meter-tall Raoul Diagne was known as the "Black Spider", a Senegalese descendant who played for teams such as RC Paris and Toulouse, and was selected for the national team for the first time in 1931 at the age of 21.
Just 40 years after Diane made his debut for the national team, another black defender was selected for france at the age of 21, one of the best central defenders in French history, Marius Tressol, who played alongside Platini, who played in the 1978 and 1982 World Cups as captain of the French team, and in 2004 Pele was invited by FIFA to draw up the top 125 players, Tresol's name is prominent.
Around the 21st century, the names of Desaili and Thuram were also written into the history of French football. Desailly has won the Champions League for two consecutive years for Marseille and AC Milan, and he was the only French player to be selected in France Football's list of ten legendary centre-backs for the Ballon d'Or Dream Team.
As the cornerstone of the defense, the tall, strong and fast forward der Serri is one of the core figures of France's consecutive World Cup and European Championships, and his role is comparable to van Dijk.
In addition, although Lilian Thuram played as a right-back for most of the Time in France, his position later shifted to a central defender after Blanco and Desailly withdrew from the national team, and although he was inferior to Desailly in the center-back position, his ability in all aspects was also outstanding. He was the only French player to be selected on the list of ten legendary right-backs for the Ballon d'Or Dream team for the Ballon d'Or.
Over the years, France has also experienced many black central defenders, such as Sacco, Mangala and Umtiti, but they have not established themselves in the national team for a long time, and only Varane has become one of the best. In the past two years, Deschamps has innovated the Formation of the French team into a three-centre-back, and Varane has always been the main force.
In the last edition of france's squad, Kimpembe, Conde and Varane were selected as three black centre-backs, who were also the starting players of last year's UEFA Nations League final against Spain. As for the World Cup at the end of the year, one of the four men, Yu Pamecano, Konat, Sariba and Zuma, may get a ticket to Qatar.
The French youth academy is booming
Since the completion of the famous French National Youth Centre in Klefontaine in 1988, the French Football Federation currently operates 14 elite academies in French territory around the world, covering territories far from the French mainland, including Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean and Reunion, the hometown of Payet.
The establishment of the national youth training center system has continuously cultivated a large number of elite football talents for the French national team at all levels.
Coupled with the government-led sports training institutions open to the whole people, they can practice sports under the guidance of professional coaches for only 22-99 euros a year, and regularly participate in organized sports activities, while students aged 5-12 are 3 p.m. every day after school, in addition to the fixed physical education classes in the school, they also participate in the rich sports club activities organized by the school, of which football is one of the most popular options.
In 2015, Limido, a member of Auxerre's management, answered a question from a Xinhua reporter about the career advancement of youth players and cultural education, "Only a few of the youth players in each batch can eventually embark on a professional path, so we always insist that sports training and cultural education go hand in hand, even if they can't play in professional teams, players can also engage in sports education and other related work with the ability and certificate obtained here." In fact, 90% of our youth players can pass the high school examination and apply to university according to their own ability. ”
Therefore, while France is blessed with a large number of young players of African descent and Caribbean coastal descent with excellent physical talent, the national level has created very good hardware and software conditions for the development and promotion of players, which has made France's high-quality young players continue to emerge.
Before the end of the five major leagues last season, OPTA had done a statistic of U21 players, and they found that Ligue 1 U21 players were at the top of the five leagues and 40% higher than the second-place Bundesliga. This also shows that at the national league level, Ligue 1 is very open to young players, and playing out will also be competed for by other league clubs.
French strikers have swept European football in recent years, and in the next decade, French black centre-backs may become the brightest business card of French football in Europe.