Can France’s World Cup team rival Brazil’s all-time greats?

{"text":[[{"start":7.25,"text":"The two greatest attacks in the World Cup’s history were both Brazilian: the five-man frontline of 1970 led by Pelé, and the “three Rs” of 2002, Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho. Both became world champions. But the French attack that opens its campaign against Senegal on Tuesday has the potential to rival them. "}],[{"start":29.15,"text":"At centre forward is the team’s captain Kylian Mbappé, a world champion at 19 in 2018, scorer of a hat-trick in the last World Cup final of 2022 and now, aged just 27, one goal away from tying Olivier Giroud’s record 57 as France’s highest scorer. "}],[{"start":47.5,"text":"Behind him, probably sharing the roles of outside-right and playmaker, are Michael Olise of Bayern Munich, the Bundesliga’s player of the season, and Paris Saint-Germain’s Ousmane Dembélé, holder of the Ballon d’Or for world footballer of the year. Vying to join them at outside-left are a young pair who have already won two Champions Leagues with PSG, 21-year-old Désiré Doué, and Bradley Barcola, 23. Manchester City’s playmaker Rayan Cherki, a talent most countries would build their team around, will probably start from the bench. "}],[{"start":80.95,"text":"But how will France’s conservative coach Didier Deschamps corral these players into a unit? And is Mbappé finally going to start defending?"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":89.95,"text":"Mbappé, with Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, has until now been one of the last modern forwards who doesn’t do defensive work. Luis Enrique, who coached him at PSG, once exhorted him to imitate his basketball hero Michael Jordan, who “defended like a son of a bitch”. Mbappé was unmoved. This isn’t simple arrogance. He believes athletes succeed by accentuating their strengths. For him, that means saving his explosiveness for going for goal. Childhood pal Dembélé has been urging him to change his attitude. "}],[{"start":125.9,"text":"This week, Mbappé said, in a spectacular U-turn: “I need to take the extra step [with defence] because it’s something important for the team . . . I’m ready to do whatever because I want to win at all costs.” This is big if true."}],[{"start":139.4,"text":"Whereas Mbappé is a great specialist finisher, Dembélé and Olise are complete footballers. Each is that rare beast: a three-tool attacker who can dribble, pass and shoot. They also do more defending than many journeymen forwards. Olise’s teammate at Bayern, Jamal Musiala, calls him “one of the hardest working players I know”."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":160.75,"text":"Dembélé is so two-footed he isn’t sure which one is stronger. That gives the 29-year-old’s game a fearful symmetry: he can beat defenders equally smoothly on either side. He won a World Cup in 2018 as an occasionally used squad member, but whereas Mbappé hit professional football aged 16 fully formed, “Ous” needed another decade to learn to shoot and, indeed, grow up. At Barcelona, his teammate Samuel Umtiti phoned him each morning to make sure he was awake for training."}],[{"start":191,"text":"But, 18 months ago, PSG finally identified Dembélé’s best role: as a “false nine” who drifts in and out of the centre forward spot. It won him the Ballon d’Or. Before the award ceremony, Umtiti teased him in a public video: “The most important thing is to arrive on time. Otherwise they might give it to someone else.” "}],[{"start":211.5,"text":"Olise, a Londoner, shares the distinction with Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah of having been ditched young by Chelsea — in his case, aged 14. He chose to play for France, qualifying through his French-Algerian mother, and joined the team in 2024 barely speaking the language. His French has reportedly improved, though it is hard to know as he is a taciturn introvert. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":237.15,"text":"On the field, Mbappé credits him with “clairvoyance”. Olise runs upright, head up, gliding past defenders with perfect balance. A deadly shooter cutting in from the right, he also set up more goals than anyone in Europe last season."}],[{"start":252.65,"text":"Barcola may start at outside-left, because he goes deep whereas the others prefer the ball to feet — even Mbappé, who has developed a counter-productive habit of dropping into midfield.          "}],[{"start":264.15,"text":"Cherki attracted notice through the squad’s ceremonial photograph with Emmanuel Macron. To make space for sports minister Marina Ferrari beside him, Cherki gallantly sank to his knees, hands crossed over his crotch — a pose gleefully imitated by his teammates since. Mbappé, speaking to L’Equipe newspaper, damned him with faint praise: “He wants to remind everyone that he can play the pure football, the free football, which surpasses all tactical notion. That’s difficult in an era when tactics are a central subject.” True, but Mbappé is hardly one to talk."}],[{"start":300.29999999999995,"text":"It must pain Deschamps to field four attackers. His midfield duo, Adrien Rabiot and Aurélien Tchouaméni, risk being overrun. Opponents will sit back to deny this attack space — which, conversely, lets it operate near goal. "}],[{"start":315.9,"text":"Deschamps’ French teams are rarely fluent, and this one might not be either. But no other side here has such ability to score from nothing. "}],[{"start":331.09999999999997,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1781780060_1451.mp3"}