Indisputable holder this season at Arsenal, William Saliba is one of the players called up to the France team by Didier Deschamps for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
He is one of the eight defenders who can play in the center for this 2022 World Cup. Author of a very good start to the season with the Gunners, in the same vein as his season with Olympique de Marseille , Saliba has established himself, alongside Gabriel, as the young boss of Arsenal’s defence. He could be a valuable asset for Didier Deschamps especially with the physical uncertainties around Kimpembe and Varane.
William Saliba is one of the novices of this French team and his story with the Blues only began a few months ago. The defender celebrated his very first selection for the France team in March 2022 when he was still a player for Olympique de Marseille. It was precisely at the Vélodrome, against the Ivory Coast, that William Saliba played his first minutes.
The Arsenal player now has 7 selections with the France team, but does not have a huge experience and a very important defensive performance as he currently has with his club Arsenal in England since the very beginning of the season.
The central defender started football very early in his hometown club, AS Bondy, the club where Wilfried Mbappé, father of Kylian Mbappé, trains. If at the beginning, William Saliba evolved as an attacker before becoming a midfielder, he converted to a central defender when he arrived at fourteen at FC Montfermeil. Two seasons later, he joined AS Saint-Etienne where he completed his training before signing his first professional contract with the Greens on May 30, 2018.
After revealing himself to the general public with Saint-Etienne, he signed on July 25, 2019 with Arsenal for compensation of 29 million euros and at the same time became the best sale in the history of the Saint-Etienne club. If his start to the adventure with the Gunners turns into a nightmare where William Saliba plays very little with the first team, he is finally loaned to OGC Nice on January 4, 2021. Back in England, he is again loaned without option purchase from Olympique de Marseille during the 2021-2022 season, a season in which he will become one of the pillars of the Marseille team. Since the start of the 2022-2023 season, Mikel Arteta has made the native of Bondy one of his starting eleven executives. Accustomed to the young selections of the French team, William Saliba was called up for the first time on March 21, 2022 by Didier Deschamps at the A.
Of Cameroonian origin through his mother, William Saliba could have played with the Indomitable Lions, but preferred to play with the France team. Often coveted by the Cameroonian Football Federation, the former defender of Olympique de Marseille closed this chapter when Didier Deschamps called him in March 2022, even if he keeps a tie.
Cameroon is also my country. But I was born in France, it is necessarily my preference. Cameroon is my second country. But it’s not my priority, “said William Saliba in an extract from the program Le Vestiaire published by RMC Sport a few months ago. As a reminder, Saliba still represented France in six teams, less from 16 to under 21, never with Cameroon.