England and France have some of the youngest international squads in world football. A combined total of only 5 players over the age of 30 are in the teams; that’s excluding recent-call ups. Even if a single team has only 5 players over 30, if we’re including subs and reserves, that’s quite young. We also know that some major tournaments are either knocking on the door or will be knocking on the door in the blink of an eye. The UEFA Euro 2020 and then, of course, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be a great place for these teams to shine. They have a lot of talent and of course, the potential is impressive. The question is that during those major events, will that potential be converted to reality? Here’s a look at Five rounds.
Round 1. Proven Young Talent:
England has some fantastic youngsters. Callum Hudson-Odoi has put up some great performances with Chelsea. He also had very good international debut in the 5-1 win against Montenegro where he registered an assist. Jadon Sancho has been dominant in the Bundesliga with his passing and dribbling. Despite being a teenager he was one of the highlights in the league, he registered the highest no. of assists. Then you have the 2 full-backs (Walker, TAA) both of who have won the toughest championships in football (PL and UCL). There have been a lot of great performances from the England players.
France is far from a slouch in this department. Mbappe is one of the best players in the world right now, having won the most recent Ligue 1 and was the top scorer in the league. Kingsley Coman was impressive at Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga. Lucas Hernandes proved to be a sharp defender over at Atletico Madrid and it looks like more of the same will follow over at the Bundesliga with his move to Bayern Munich. Ousmane Dembele won the La Liga and showcased some of his amazing talent in a lot of games, with his speed, dribbling, passing and shooting with both feet. Where France have the edge though is that they have won the 2018 World Cup with a lot of these members, showing that they are already used to that kind of atmosphere and still come out on top.
Winner: France (The World Cup win was a big advantage in their corner)
Round 2. Potential Retirees:
France has 4 players over 30 while England has only 1(excluding recent call-ups). The 4 players in that bracket are some of their key players like Matuidi, Lloris, Sissoko, and Giroud. Matuidi and Lloris were very effective in the most recent World Cup, the former being the captain of the squad. All players often play for the squad and it’s unclear whether they will play in the coming tournaments. On the other hand, Tom Heaton is the only 30-plus player in England’s squad. He is a goalie but their primary goalkeeper looks to be Jordan Pickford, aged only 25, averting the potential threat rather easily.
Winner: England
Round 3. Recent call-ups:
Both sides have called up some fantastic players over the last 12 months. England did it with Callum Hudson-Odoi and it proved beneficial for them. Mason Mount and Luke Shaw could be great additions to the team with their recent performances in the new season. On the other hand, France has some very powerful heavyweights like Tolisso, Benjamin Mendy, Hernandez and the big one: N’golo Kante. He has been consistently hard-working and exceptional throughout his career and was very influential in their 2018 win.
Winner: France
Round 4: Performances in the recent season:
France’s young players had some highlights in the recent season. Mbappe won the Ligue 1 almost single-handedly scoring 33 goals in the league alone. Benjamin Mendy won the English PL and Kante won the Europa League. Decent but England completely dominates this Round because of the way English clubs prevailed in Europe. They won all the major trophies. 3 out of the 4 semi-finalists were English clubs in the UCL and Liverpool won it. Liverpool had fantastic performances from their Full-back Trent Alexander Arnold was stunning throughout the season. For Manchester City, Kyle Walker and especially Raheem Sterling were great, the latter regarded as one of the best players of the past season. Tottenham’s Harry Kane remained the prolific goalscorer for another season. Point is, a lot of England’s players had top-level performances in the recent season.
Winner: England
Round 5: Balance and Experience
England has a well-balanced squad. Aforementioned players like Harry Kane, Sterling and Jordan Pickford have put up superb and consistent performances in the biggest tournaments under the biggest teams. Their repertoire in the international side of things is no joke either with Harry Kane scoring a mammoth tally of 22 goals in just 39 games proving to be one of the more exemplary ‘lead by example’ captains.
France, on the other hand, have the balance and experience thing down to a science. Sissoko was brilliant in both the club and international scenes and would be able to provide a lot of experience to the squad. Same goes for the goalkeeper Lloris. Antoine Griezmann has been constantly ranked among the best in the world. He not only played a huge role in their 2018 WC campaign but also in their journey to the Euro 2016 final, scoring 5 goals in the tournament. Paul Pogba was brilliant in the World Cup as well and has played several high-level matches with Man U and his responsibilities for both sides are rather heavy he has done it well for a long time. The biggest thing that puts France over the edge here is Kylian Mbappe. Despite his incredibly young age, he has played a lot of games and was one of the major reasons for France winning the WC 2018. He is arguably the best young player in the world and in spite of his age, he has played a lot of key matches and has thus garnered a staggering level of experience, surely to come in handy.
Winner: France
Winner of Battle: France
