At Paris Saint-Germain, Warren Zaïre-Emery (19 years old), a midfielder capable of playing on the right, is seeing his profile fuel an idea: to deploy him as a right-back for the French national team with a view to the World Cup. In L’Équipe, François Clerc believes that everything will depend primarily on one thing: the Parisian’s desire…and the timing of the French national team’s announcements.
Clerc: “He’s intelligent enough to develop in the long term”
“Does he want a future in this position? If he wants it, he’ll have it. He’s intelligent enough to develop in the long term. And intelligence is essential for a good full-back. He’s obviously behind Koundé today, but he has the potential to go further. It’s mid-February and we know very well that the current situation isn’t the same as it was in mid-May when the squad list was announced.”
The value of François Clerc’s comments lies in the fact that he frames the issue correctly: not in tactical fantasy, but in the development of a player. Zaïre-Emery has the stamina, intelligence, and discipline to learn a position that demands as much reading of the game as speed, especially at the highest level.
And at 19, the prospect of a World Cup can make the idea genuinely appealing: opening up another avenue for him, even if he currently remains behind an established starter like Jules Koundé. There remains the other factor, just as real: Didier Deschamps. His approach is primarily pragmatic, and “experiments” rarely receive the red carpet treatment with the French national team. Between mid-February and the May squad announcement, the coach will expect guarantees, not promises.
This debate also has one merit: it reminds us that the hierarchy within the national team shifts rapidly. A solid spring, a visible progression in defensive automatisms, and what looks like an option today becomes, tomorrow, a credible solution.
