Mayulu joins France squad, first Champions League final goalscorer called up since Michel Hidalgo in 1962

Senny Mayulu received his first France call-up on Wednesday, ahead of the Blues’ trip to San Siro to face Italy in the Ligue des Nations. The 20-year-old PSG attacking midfielder thus enters the history of the French national team, sixty-three years after the last player to achieve the same trajectory.

Manager Zinédine Zidane called up Mayulu due to persistent doubts surrounding Kylian Mbappé, who is nursing a hamstring injury. The France captain did not participate in Wednesday’s training session and is expected to miss Thursday evening’s match at San Siro (20:45) against Italy, before hosting Turkey in Bordeaux three days later. A victory in either of these two matches would be enough for France to secure qualification for the quarter-finals of the competition.

Mayulu thus becomes only the second player to be called up for the first time by France after already scoring in a Ligue des Champions final. The first was Michel Hidalgo, who scored in the very first European Cup final in 1956 with Stade de Reims against Real Madrid (4-3 defeat), before earning his first cap in 1962. Hidalgo went on to become a legend of French football as manager of the 1984 European champions.

On 31 May 2025 in Munich, Mayulu scored PSG’s fifth goal against Inter Milan in the Parisian club’s first European triumph. Set up by Bradley Barcola, he beat Yann Sommer with a left-footed strike after coming off the bench. Achraf Hakimi, Désiré Doué (with a brace) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had opened the scoring.

Formed at US Saint-Denis and AF Épinay-sur-Seine before joining PSG’s academy, Mayulu joins other young players promoted from the U21s in this squad: Robin Risser, Saël Kumbedi, Pablo Pagis and Eli Junior Kroupi.