Zidane considering call-up for Ismaëlo Ganiou, never selected for France A

Zinédine Zidane is set to announce his first squad as France manager on September 18, and the name of Ismaëlo Ganiou, RC Lens centre-back, would reportedly be among the pre-called players, according to RMC Sport. The player, developed at the Artois club, has never yet been called up to the France A team.

Ganiou’s rise has been meteoric. It was the serious injury to Jonathan Gradit in late 2025 that opened the door to the Lens starting eleven for him. Quickly, he established himself as a rock at the heart of the defence, combining positional sense, physical impact and maturity. His performance in the Coupe de France final against Nice (3-1) — a victory in which he dominated his area — definitively cemented his reputation.

Since then, Ganiou has extended his contract until 2030 and has become the leader of Lens’s defence under Dino Toppmöller. On Thursday, during the trip to Prague in the Champions League, he delivered another high-quality performance in a difficult match for the French runners-up. Zidane was present to watch him.

The defender himself measures the stakes of this season. “It’s a season of confirmation, to show that last season’s half-campaign was not a fluke. I want to show that I’m capable of performing over the long term,” he said. The upcoming European fixtures — with clashes in the Champions League against Manchester City and Liverpool — will constitute an additional test.

On the international front, his trajectory has taken a notable turn. After a selection with Burkina Faso in June 2025, Ganiou used FIFA’s regulatory relaxations to change his sporting nationality. Two convincing caps with France’s U21s in March last year quickly validated this choice.

Ganiou is not the only player never called up by Didier Deschamps to be on Zidane’s radar. Andy Diouf, in great form at Inter Milan, Esteban Lepaul at Stade Rennais and Pablo Pagis of Paris FC have also reportedly received pre-call-ups. The full squad will be unveiled on September 18.