Didier Deschamps announced a 26-man France squad for the 2026 World Cup on Wednesday, picking Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele to lead the attack while leaving several notable players, including Eduardo Camavinga and Randal Kolo Muani, off the plane to North America.
The weight of the selection is obvious in the numbers. Mbappe arrives with 56 goals for France and is expected to captain the side despite recent struggles with a thigh injury. Dembele comes into the tournament fresh off a season in which he scored 35 goals and won the Champions League with Paris St-Germain, though he has yet to open his World Cup account after appearing in the last two tournaments. Michael Olise and Desire Doue complete the attacking quartet alongside Mbappe and Dembele. Olivier Giroud, whose 57 goals for France sit one shy of surpassing Mbappe, is not part of the attacking mix named for this tournament.
Deschamps defended the choices in plain language. "It's a squad. Not necessarily the 26 best players. It's about balance and how the team comes together," he said, a line that framed both inclusions and omissions. He also addressed the obvious disappointment of those left out: "I can imagine how disappointed [Camavinga] must be. He's coming off a tough season where he didn't play as much and suffered injuries. [But] I've got decisions to make and a squad to put together." Camavinga and Kolo Muani, both involved in previous tournaments, were among several surprises excluded.
Other selections underline the squad's makeup. Malo Gusto was named after a season in which he made 47 appearances for Chelsea in all competitions, and he has nine caps for France. Gusto also featured five times during France's World Cup qualifying campaign, which the team won by topping a group that included Ukraine, Iceland and Azerbaijan. Rayan Cherki and William Saliba are among seven Premier League-based players selected. In goal, Robin Risser joins Brice Samba as back-ups to Mike Maignan.
Context after the announcement: this is the last major tournament Deschamps will manage for France and he arrives having taken Les Bleus to back-to-back World Cup finals. The choices carry extra weight because of that history and because France will open the competition on 16 June in New Jersey against Senegal, followed by matches against Iraq on 22 June and Norway on 26 June. Expectations will be high; the core of the team includes two survivors from France's 2018 World Cup-winning squad — Lucas Hernandez and N'Golo Kante — alongside Mbappe and Dembele, tying this roster to past success while also signaling a transition.
The tension in the list is immediate. Leaving Camavinga out after his involvement in 2022 and excluding Kolo Muani — a forward who figured into recent squads — create a gap between Deschamps's stated aim for balance and the selection realities. Mbappe's captaincy looms as another point of friction: he is the nation’s leading active scorer and the obvious on-field leader, yet comes in nursing a thigh problem. Dembele's excellent club form will raise questions about why he remains without a World Cup goal despite two prior appearances. Those contradictions make the opening match in New Jersey, and the results that follow, the first meaningful test of these choices.
The clearest immediate consequence is simple: France's path is set and immediate scrutiny will follow. Deschamps has chosen experience in some spots and gamble in others, trimming the squad to 26 with players he believes offer the most balance this summer. The single most consequential question now is whether this mix — Mbappe's leadership through injury, Dembele's club form versus his World Cup record, and the omission of familiar names such as Camavinga — will deliver a third straight appearance in a final or instead expose the limits of a coach making his final major selection.
