Zidane's first training session as France coach with just 12 players: some were worried

Butez, Restes, Diouf, Camavinga, Olise, Koundé, Lacroix, Manu Koné, Akliouche, Upamecano, Lepaul and Da Cunha: these were the first and only 12 players to officially kick off Zinedine Zidane's adventure on the France bench. The new national team coach turned up at Clairefontaine for his first training session with the national team, along with the goalkeeping coach – and his loyal friend and former teammate – Fabien Barthez. The two were filmed by cameras as they led the respective training sessions with the groups of players present.

Only 12, in fact, as Zidane wanted to work only with those who had played little or nothing during the weekend, and more precisely on Sunday. The other 11 players were divided between recovery athletic sessions and individual exercises in the gym, following the program established by the national team's trainers. On the pitch, meanwhile, the session consisted of technical exercises. Some players were visibly excited – or rather tense, according to what "L'Équipe" reports – almost under pressure by the idea of ​​carrying out these exercises, not so simple and in some respects unusual, in front of the new coach.

Without a doubt, a figure like Zidane in the role of national coach transmits a strong emotion, especially to those who have entered the dimension of the national team for the first time, like Da Cunha himself and Butez of Como or Diouf of Inter. For his part, Zidane immediately appeared calm with his players: he calmed them down, talked to them and with some of them he stopped for a longer time, such as with Olise. The coach relies heavily on the Bayern Munich talent and joked with him several times, precisely to put him at ease. Training knowing that you are being evaluated by a lifelong champion like Zidane is certainly not easy, especially for those who debuted with the “Bleus”.

Upamecano, one of the leaders of this team, declared about this: “We had a lot of fun. I have to say that when we were little, we were all fans of Zidane and Barthez and it is fantastic to be able to learn from them”. Then, after seeing the national coach serve his players with a pass before shooting towards the goal, he added jokingly: “It is difficult to repeat Zidane’s ball control (laughs).” The impact seems to have been very good and now Zidane is just waiting to work with the rest of the group. Today’s session ended with a small five-on-five match, which was very entertaining for the participants.