Allan Saint-Maximin has shared his delight for his friends in the French World Cup squad, as his nation gears up for Sunday’s final in Qatar. Newcastle’s wing wizard has been cheering on Les Bleus from afar but has also described his disappointment that injury curtailed his chances of making the French squad for the tournament.
Saint-Maximin had started the season in sizzling form for the Toon, giving Man City the run around at St James’, before scoring a goal-of-the-season contender against Wolves. Since then he has been dogged by hamstring problems but is now close to a return to action just in time for the Premier League’s resumption.
“It’s painful, especially when you start the season like that”, Saint-Maximin said during the recent team trip to Saudi Arabia.
“When you start the season like that, and you play great against one of the best teams in the world, Manchester City, and you score again and have a very good feeling, and the injury happens, it’s very difficult mentally.
“I put in a lot of work to be able to be in the best position with my body and everything to be able to help the team. It is difficult and harder when you have the World Cup goal in your mind.”
The former Nice man has yet to make his France debut but must surely have been in Didier Deschamps’ thoughts as he formulated plans for his provisional World Cup squad earlier in the year. Despite his disappointment with missing out on Qatar, he name-checked some of his friends in the squad whom he is very happy for.
“Even if I’m not in the squad, I’m very happy, because I have a lot of friends there – Kylian (Mbappe), Ousmane (Dembele), Marcus Thuram. I’m really happy for them, but, for sure, when you think you can be there, and maybe have the chance to win the World Cup, it’s something big.” [ShieldsGazette]
I’m sure, like me, fans will be very interested to learn that our mercurial Maxi, has name-checked these three players in particular. We have, of course, been linked with Barcelona’s Dembele in the past, but it is Thuram that is the most interesting.
The 25-year-old, who came on as a sub in the recent World Cup semi-final win over Morocco, is thought to be high on the list of attackers being considered for a January move by Eddie Howe. Hopefully, ASM has been putting a bit of pressure on his mate to join him on Tyneside.
As for Mbappe…….well we can but dream!