Lepaul, Ligue 1's top scorer, favourite to make Zidane's first squad

Zinédine Zidane will announce his first squad as head of the France national team on 17 September, having been appointed manager on 28 July to replace Didier Deschamps. Les Bleus will play four matches during a two-week international window, starting on 25 September in Turkey before two fixtures against Belgium and a trip to Italy.

With several stalwarts from the Deschamps era nearing the end of their cycle — Lucas Hernandez, Lucas Digne and N’Golo Kanté notably — places are opening up in the French squad. In attack, Esteban Lepaul’s name keeps cropping up. The Stade Rennais centre-forward finished as Ligue 1’s top scorer last season with 21 goals, and his inclusion in Zidane’s squad is widely anticipated, potentially at the expense of Marcus Thuram or Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Lepaul, 26, embodies an atypical trajectory: rejected by Lyon’s professional ranks, he started in National 2 with Épinal before gradually establishing himself at the top of the elite division’s scoring charts. Extended at Rennes, he is approaching the new season with stated ambitions. “Expectation is a positive lever. I’m not afraid of failure. I challenge myself enormously, I need to be challenged too,” he told Ouest-France, speaking of a “clear” vision of his path, built “step by step”.

The striker says he has improved his back-to-goal play and his connection with teammates, and is targeting Stade Rennais’s qualification for the Ligue des Champions this season, which he describes as his “number one dream”. He could, however, earn a first international cap before even playing in the European competition.

Zidane, who has been monitoring through his coaching staff the early-season form of potential internationals — the Bundesliga being the only major European league yet to start — is expected to opt for an enlarged squad, possibly 26 players, given the packed schedule of this international window.