(Villeneuve-d’Ascq) At 37, Olivier Giroud is not a solution for the future, but eight months before Euro-2024 he is still a potential starter at the forefront of the attack French, facing competitors who have not yet met expectations.
Coming into play on Friday against the Netherlands, where France sealed its qualification for the Euro in Germany (June 14-July 14), Olivier Giroud could this time start against Scotland on Tuesday in a friendly.
Several times announced finished for the very high level, Giroud has always responded. Having become the top scorer in the history of the Blues (54) during the 2022 World Cup, the vice-world champion intends to continue his great adventure in Blue.
“He has this experience, this experience, and always this ability to be effective”, underlined Didier Deschamps on Monday. “Even if there were periods with the France team where he wasn’t, that doesn’t stop him from having this record today.”
Hungry for victories and titles, the 2018 world champion did not retire internationally after Qatar, unlike Raphaël Varane, Hugo Lloris, Karim Benzema or Steve Mandanda.
In 2023, he has had six selections, including three starts, and should have his 127th on Tuesday in Lille, following a good start to the season with AC Milan (4 goals, 3 assists).
After overtaking Thierry Henry (51) in the pantheon of French scorers on December 4, 2022, in the round of 16 against Poland (3-1), Giroud scored the 53rd against England (2-1) in the quarter and then the 54th this year, against Gibraltar (3-0) in the Euro qualifiers.
Behind the lethal weapon of the Blues Kylian Mbappé, best director of the Blues in 2023 with six goals, including a new superb double against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, no attacker is indisputable.
To the point that with his experience, his professionalism and his fierce competitive spirit, Giroud still naturally applies for the starting position at the forefront of Deschamps’ 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1.
If his total is meager in 2023 (1 goal), that of his competitors is just as meager: Randal Kolo Muani, who benefited from the most playing time in N.9, has not scored since the semi-final of the World Cup against Morocco. And Marcus Thuram scored his first and only goal in Blue against Ireland in September.
Thus the Rossonero, the Parisian and the Nerazzurro are neck and neck eight months before the continental deadline.
In attack, “the hierarchy […] is evolving”, explained “DD” last week, and “it is not because there is one who scores three goals that he will become N.1, it ‘is more a reflection in relation to the profile of the players and the opponent’.
Giroud and Thuram are thus more pivotal attackers, who we look for with their backs to goal for a one-two, a throw-in, a launching pad that the rocket Mbappé particularly likes on the left, or Kingsley Coman and Ousmane Dembélé on the right wing.
Deschamps will also take into account freshness and time does not play a role, on this point, in favor of the former Gunner: “Olivier is still 37 years old, that leads his club coach to manage him, […] he plays little of entire matches,” he noted.
A statement which, however, applies just as much to the competitors of the 2022 Italian champion: neither Thuram (26 years old) nor Kolo Muani (24 years old) generally play all club matches.
Still, having “this trio available today”, “in full possession of (its) means, it’s pretty good”, Deschamps rejoiced on Monday.
And even at 37, Giroud has in any case proven that he is always ready to renew himself: after the exclusion of Mike Maignan with AC Milan, it was he who put on the gloves brilliantly in the last minutes to preserve the 1-0 against Genoa (1-0). Giroud: Both Olive and Tom.