GUENDOUZI. Holder with the France team this Wednesday against Tunisia, Mattéo Guendouzi could also have played the World Cup with… Morocco, thanks to his origins.
After waxing the bench in the first two games of the World Cup, Mattéo Guendouzi finally has the opportunity to show himself with the France team. Holder in midfield to face Tunisia in the last group match of the competition this Wednesday, November 30, the player ofOM discovers the very high level in Qatar, he who still has little experience of major events. An opportunity offered by Didier Deschamps, while the adopted Marseillais could have traveled to the Middle East with… Morocco.
Indeed, the father of the French international is Franco-Moroccan. Thus, he was entitled, younger, to integrate the Atlas Lions. When he was still only in the lower categories of the national team, Hervé Renard, then Moroccan coach, had approached the midfielder to offer him to defend the colors of his second country of origin. But the main interested party declined the proposal, constantly evoking his goal of playing for the France team. In 2018, Hervé Renard confirmed: “I spoke to him once when he was playing in Lorient. But you know, we can’t force someone to play with us. It depends on him and his entourage.” It was finally the blue-white-red flag that he decided to defend.
Before being selected for the 2022 World Cup, Mattéo Guendouzi rose through the ranks within the French teams. The midfielder made his debut in the tricolor jersey in 2016, with the under-18s, before continuing until 2021, without stopping, with the under-19s, under-20s and hopefuls. In the meantime, Didier Deschamps gives him a taste of the pennant team by calling him up twice in 2019 with the Blues, without giving him playing time. Mattéo Guendouzi finally plays his first minutes in the tricolor jersey on November 16, 2021 , during a trip to Finland. In one year, he has accumulated six caps (1 tenure) and scored one goal, in a friendly match against South Africa in March 2022.
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Mattéo Guendouzi was born on April 14, 1999 in Poissy in the Yvelines department in Île-de-France. Son of a French mother and a Franco-Moroccan father, the midfielder grew up in Bazemont. A talented footballer, he joined Paris Saint-Germain at the age of six where he did all of his pre-training and part of his training. At PSG, he finds himself alongside Antoine Bernede (RB Salzburg), Boubakary Soumaré (Leicester) and Stanley N’Soki (Hoffenheim). In 2014, when he was only fifteen, Mattéo Guendouzi left Paris Saint-Germain and joined the Lorient training center.
It is in Brittany that Mattéo Guendouzi begins to test the high level. On October 15, 2016, he made his professional debut against FC Nantes but, after a few appearances, saw his club go down to Ligue 2 at the end of the season. Although he refused to extend when the contract ended the following summer, the midfielder revealed himself in the second division. But internally, the climate is not looking good and the young nugget decides to take off after being put in the closet by her trainer Mickaël Landreau.
At 19, he arrived at Arsenal, one of the London clubs. With the Gunners, he had a full 2018-2019 season with nearly 50 games played, opening the doors to the French team. But while he appears to be a centerpiece of the team’s midfield, the ousting of Unai Emery will also push him towards the start. Mikel Arteta, the athlete’s new strongman, gives him less playing time in 2019-2020 and disputes will lead to the Frenchman’s departure for Germany in October 2020.
On loan to Herta Berlin, Mattéo Guendouzi finds playing time and falls into the sights of OM who manage to enlist him in the summer of 2021, in the form of a loan. No prospects were opening up at Arsenal for the midfielder. In Marseille, the young Frenchman quickly melted into the mould, under the leadership of Jorge Sampaoli. He played 56 games in one season, his record, established himself as an essential element of the Marseille midfield and was adopted by an incandescent Vélodrome. Despite the change of coach and the arrival of Igor Tudor on the bench, Guendouzi remains one of the centerpieces of the Olympian XI. So many performances that opened the doors to Qatar with the Blues.