"Julien, congratulations on another trophy." Varane was the first to greet Julien when he arrived at the training ground. "I'm getting a bit jealous."
"Raphael, you're already playing in the Champions League, so cut it out." Julien went forward to high-five Varane.
The two were already quite familiar with each other. Their conversation was relaxed, laughing and joking as they entered the field to prepare for training.
The new teammate Deschamps mentioned was obviously Varane—this was Varane's first call-up to the national team.
Julien didn't need to think to know this was related to Zidane.
Zidane had not only introduced Varane to Real Madrid, but in his first season after joining Real, Mourinho had already given Varane playing opportunities.
Copa del Rey, Champions League, league matches—he had made 15 appearances in total last season, 13 of them as a starter.
He scored two goals and provided one assist.
For a center-back, these were excellent statistics for an 18-year-old player.
Because of this, after Deschamps took over, with the example of Julien who was playing as a main winger for the national team at just 17—he had no reservations.
This squad not only included 17-year-old Julien and 18-year-old Raphael Varane, but also 18-year-old Pogba.
Pogba was also on the training ground. But he clearly had no intention of greeting Julien. When their eyes met, his gaze was somewhat scrutinizing.
Other players gradually arrived at the training ground, all were greeting Julien.
Ribéry looked concerned and asked about his injuries, "Is your injury completely healed? You had us worried sick last time."
Julien nodded and replied. "No problem. Dr. Montel has confirmed I'm fully recovered."
Ribéry sighed a breath of relief and patted Julien's shoulder. "That's good. The Euros were a bit of a shame. If you hadn't been injured, we might have really gotten past Germany."
Speaking of this, Ribéry felt somewhat upset. In his view, this might be his last European Championship, and it ended this way.
If it hadn't been for Julien's self-sacrificing performance, the French team might not have even made it to the semifinals.
Then Julien met Giroud.
Deschamps' squad this time didn't include Benzema's name, which drew some criticism. But since Blanc had already abandoned Benzema, some media speculated that Benzema must have done something unknown to be dropped by two consecutive head coaches.
With Blanc taking most of the pressure, the criticism of Deschamps' first squad selection was actually quite minimal.
Without Benzema, Giroud was the absolute main striker.
He was also in high spirits, looking at Julien, he even said, "Too bad I wasn't at Montpellier, or I wouldn't have let you win the Super Cup so easily."
"Indeed, we were quite lucky." Julien smiled and hugged him.
"How is it? The injury doesn't affect you, right?" Giroud was much taller than Julien and looked down at him with concern in his eyes.
"Don't worry, it absolutely won't affect us winning."
"Then I definitely believe it. A healthy you, in my heart, is the world's best right winger."
At this point, Giroud lowered his voice and glanced at Ribéry, and whispered to his, "Don't let Frank hear that—in his heart, the best right winger is Robben."
"Haha."
After saying this, even Varane nearby started laughing.
The group began their formal warm-up.
However, just after hearing Giroud mention Robben, when Julien looked at Ribéry again, he suddenly remembered that this season would be Ribéry's peak year—Champions League winner, Bundesliga champion, German Cup winner, UEFA Super Cup winner; individual honors included European Player of the Year, Bundesliga Player of the Year, and Bundesliga assist leader.
This would lead to huge controversy over the 2013 Ballon d'Or.
The main controversy was the delayed voting.
This always bothered Ribéry, and years later in an interview, he spoke his mind—
"It was a perfect year. I couldn't have done better. This Ballon d'Or will forever be an unjust award. I will never understand why the voting deadline was postponed for more than two weeks."
"If the voting rules were the same as now, I could have won. I feel my Ballon d'Or was stolen by the selection committee."
Soon, Julien pulled his thoughts back and began formal training.
During training, Julien could always feel scrutinizing looks from Pogba.
Julien and Pogba hadn't had any direct communication yet. However, Julien understood this equally gifted midfielder quite well.
Pogba's football talent was extremely rare—technique, vision, physicality, confrontation ability, football intelligence—it was rare for all these qualities to be concentrated in one person. Simply put, he was blessed by the heavens.
But he also had a fatal flaw.
Similar to Lukaku, he had a "Big Baby" personality.
Because of his exceptional football talent from a young age, he developed a kind of "self-centered, performative personality."
Pogba was exactly this type of character.
Perhaps Ferguson saw through his personality and deliberately tried to humble Pogba, which was why at Manchester United, Pogba never really got many opportunities.
Moreover, Pogba loved to show off. His current position was defensive midfielder, but even when opponents pressed him, he had to show off.
Regardless of whether there were teammates in open positions to receive the ball, he just had to show off.
Simply put, he wanted to display himself, to be the flashiest one on the field, to get everyone's attention.
At Manchester United, he couldn't get these things.
Even Cristiano Ronaldo was criticized by Ferguson for being too flashy when he first arrived at United—what made Pogba think he was special?
In this regard, he was quite compatible with his Manchester United youth teammate Lingard.
The two had a good relationship.
Deschamps watched from the sideline, constantly observing the players' training situations. As a mature coach, he had his own effective logic for selecting players.
In his coaching career, he had discovered quite a few players. Naturally, he could tell which players in this squad were worth developing, which were just transitional, and which needed to be dropped.
Deschamps was a devout believer in the parallel 4-4-2 formation.
Whether at Monaco or Juventus, he used a configuration of two strikers, two wingers, and two central midfielders.
Julien and Ribéry's dual-wing attack was undoubtedly his ideal winger combination.
In the striker position, Giroud was decent as a target man, but he lacked a suitable flexible forward to help him.
Deschamps knew he still needed to find a versatile front-court player.
Currently, he was using Marvin Martin, who had just transferred to Lille.
Last season, Martin played for Sochaux and became Ligue 1's assist leader with 19 assists.
As for the central and back positions, Deschamps hadn't yet determined his final available players and needed to continue observing.
He didn't mind promoting young players aggressively—it was time for France to unleash a youth storm!
Soon, that day's training ended.
Deschamps announced that there would only be morning training over the weekend, with the afternoon free.
Ribéry smiled and asked Julien. "Want to go play in Paris tomorrow afternoon and evening?"
Julien shook his head. "No thanks, I'm going to watch a regional league match."
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