Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines (France) (AFP) – Saël Kumbedi, right back from Wolfsburg in Germany and Pablo Pagis, playmaker from Paris FC, are the surprise guests of Zinédine Zidane's group for the last two Nations League group matches against Italy on Thursday and Turkey on Sunday. With a real playing card.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 20:44

The Blues coach spoke the truth when he said at the very beginning of his mandate that he would watch Ligue 1 matches and even those in the second division without refraining from drawing players to make up the French team.

He had not specified that he was also looking at the German second division, where Kumbedi, summoned to compensate for the loss of Pierre Kalulu, plays with Wolfsburg. And as Pablo Pagis recognized in the aisles of the Abbé-Deschamps stadium in Auxerre where he played on Saturday with the PFC, his selection, in addition to the withdrawal of Maghnes Akliouche which he replaces, has a lot to do with his club's good start to the season, surprising 3rd in the French championship.

"I learned of the selection this morning. I was at home, I had to join the Espoirs group. And then I was contacted to come and join + the Castle +, said the right back. It's a pride, I did all my classes up to A. I didn't think it would happen so quickly, but I prepared for it, it was a goal.

Hopes in the antechamber

Unknown to the general public, the 21-year-old Wolfsburg defender has seven caps among the juniors that Zidane considers to be the real antechamber of the "A". There is an executive there, the “ambiencer”, the one who, as he himself confided, takes care of the hazing of newcomers.

More importantly, he is also a true right-back, a position which constitutes the biggest challenge for Zidane and his staff. At this gathering, Jules Koundé and Kalulu were injured. Malo Gusto and Warren Zaire-Emery, who Zidane insists on seeing in midfield, are the two other players who can fill this position.

Andy Diouf could also, but the coach wants to install him on the left. With the only Malo Gusto on the right, Kumbedi, the first international to play in the second division since David Trezeguet and Jean-Alain Boumsong in 2006-2007, relegated to Serie B while they were playing for Juventus sanctioned during the Calciopoli scandal, should therefore have playing time during the rally.

For Pablo Pagis, playing time should depend on the result of the first meeting in Milan against Italy where a draw would be enough for the Blues to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Nations League and would more easily encourage the staff to carry out a squad review during the match against Turkey in Bordeaux.

Pagis in the name of the father

The striker, who has had a remarkable start to the season, does not yet fall into these assumptions: "I want to express myself, do what I can do, have fun like I had today (Monday on the first day of the rally, Editor's note) and take everything that happens to me. We'll see what happens."

Still in Auxerre, Pagis, amid the pride of accomplishing what his father Mickael Pagis, once close to the French team without ever being called up, had not managed to do, expressed everything he had to endure to get there.

"I've had it tough," he said on Monday at Clairefontaine. "But, like all the players here, you have to make sacrifices. It takes a lot of effort. And when those moments arrive, you think back to everything that has been since the beginning and what hasn't been. And it's true that obviously, when you come here, it's something incredible."

Not only, like Lucas Da Cuhna, the Como midfielder, unknown before the first meeting of Zidane's Blues in September who dazzled everyone from his first minutes of play, Pagis like Kumbedi have a card to play with the new coach.

“We will do everything to try to do the same thing,” concluded Pagis with a knowing smile.

© 2026 AFP

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