Originally called up to France’s U21 squad for the international break, Mattéo Guendouzi received a surprise upgrade when Paul Pogba pulled out of the first-team due to an ankle injury.
Didier Deschamps immediately turned to the Arsenal youngster, who has been a regular under Unai Emery this season, to replace the Manchester United star, and there’s a general belief he deserves to be there.
Following this great turn of events in his career, L’Equipe sat down with the player at Clairefontaine to talk to him about it.
Asked how he reacted to his first call-up as a 20-year-old, he said: “Oh wow! With stars in your eyes. You struggle to go to sleep, you try and reply to all the messages. Since I was kid, it was a goal of mine. A dream. The fact it’s become true, you recall all the steps in your career: the hard times, the important moments.
“It’s when you’re on the phone with your family that it sinks in. There are some crying. Wearing this shirt, it’s a great honour.”
Despite it still was a surprise, he still feels he deserves to be there considering he has performed at club level with Arsenal, and he hopes to bring the same level of performance with the national team.
In fact, the player was full of praise for Unai Emery, who told him exactly what to work on the improve as a player to get to this level.
He said: “Whether it’s defensively, with the ball and without it, the manager wanted me to work on a lot of things. At a tactical level, I felt I progressed a lot. I managed to make myself important in the team.
“It’s something I really wanted to do. The manager told me he knew that I would be a key part of his team this year. That’s what I’ve managed to do so far”.
And by doing so, he got the reward he deserved.
