Doué shines in France's Belgium victory and draws Michael Jordan comparison

Désiré Doué was the star of France’s victory in Belgium (0-1) on Monday evening in Brussels in the Nations League. Rated 8/10 by L’Équipe — the best mark shared with Jérémy Jacquet — the PSG winger hit the crossbar as early as the 12th minute and dominated proceedings from start to finish.

It was ultimately Michael Olise who delivered for France: brought on in the 77th minute, the Bayern Munich winger capped off a brilliant solo run with an unstoppable strike (88th) to secure the three points for Zinédine Zidane. But Doué’s display stole the show right until the final whistle.

Stéphane Jobard, assistant to Rudi Garcia with the Belgian national team for the 2026 World Cup, pulled no punches in Le Parisien. “He put on an outstanding performance, it’s top class, with an incredible speed of execution in tight spaces,” he said, before venturing a bold comparison: “Every time I see him play, I feel like I’m watching Michael Jordan. I’m waiting for a moment of magic every time he touches the ball.”

Jobard did temper his assessment on one specific point: “If you focus on the finishing, you might be disappointed. But he’s the catalyst, he’s the one pushing back the entire Belgian defence, creating space for others. He played a very high-level match.”

This performance comes at the perfect time for Doué, who had started on the bench in the Turkey match, with Zidane preferring the Mbappé-Dembélé-Olise trio. The return of Kylian Mbappé to his natural left wing represented a direct threat to his playing time. Against Belgium, the Paris player answered on the pitch and posed a real selection headache for his manager for the rest of the competition.