The cool and combative young Arsenal midfield star Francis Coquelin has actually appeared for his country, making three appearances for the under 17s, five for the under 18s, 16 for the under 19s, 12 for the under 20s and seven for the under 21s of France.
In fact he was a key player for his national team back then, starting four of the five games as they won the under 19 Euros in 2010, where he provided the assist for the winning goal in the semi-final to cap a great tournament. The following year Coquelin played in all seven of France´s games at the under 20s World Cup but as his Arsenal career stalled, so did his international one.
So it is easy to understand why he has not been included in the full team for France, or it was until recently. Not, however, after Coquelin has been playing brilliantly at such a high standard ever since his return from a loan spell with Charlton, he must be wondering why he has not been called up by Didier Deschamps.
With the injury problems and fatigue affecting Arsenal at the moment, perhaps it is good for us that Coquelin has not had the call. With Euro 2016 coming up in his homeland next summer though, Coquelin could be forgiven for being distracted by his hope of being involved.
So the fact that his international snub has only made him focus harder on helping Arsenal achieve trophy success this season, as he explained in an Arsenal.com report, just highlights what a great attitude he has and why he has become such a vital player for us.
Coquelin said, “I always thought I could do good things. Did I think it would be this big? Maybe not,but I always had confidence in myself.
“For the future, I’m definitely making my targets smaller than making Euro 2016. Everyone is talking about it, and obviously it is a massive thing but I’m focused on Arsenal. We have a great squad but there are still a few people doubting us and I’m focused on clearing these doubts. I hope we can do something special this season.”
Is Coquelin´s international snub actually helping Arsenal?