The young Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi has had an excellent start to his career in the Premier League, and last week he enhanced his reputation with a brilliant showing for the France Under 21 side, but as his father is half French and half-Moroccan he is also eligible to play for the North African side.
But now that Morocco have qualified for the finals of the African Nations Cup next summer, the coach of the Atlas Lions, Herve Renard, is desperate for the Arsenal youngster to switch allegiance to Morocco. This is how StarAfrica.com reported it this morning…..
Mattéo Guendouzi participated for the first time with the France U21s against Croatia last Thursday (2-2). And although he plays for the selections of Les Bleus, Morocco does not lose hope to persuade the youngster, according to L’Equipe.
The Atlas Lions coach, Hervé Renard, would like to see the Arsenal player join his group, in view of the ACN 2019. He has once again made it known after the qualification of his team at the finals in beating Cameroon (2-0) on Friday.
The problem is that the player has given his first acceptance to Les Bleus. Can the ACN be a sufficient argument to change his mind?
I can certainly see that the chance of definitely appearing at a major Finals next summer may cause Guendouzi to think about switching to Morocco, especially given the wealth of talent available to Didier Deschamps, but surely he would definitely have more chance of winning a major competition if he could become a regular first-teamer with France?
If you were in Matteo’s position, what would you do?
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Well, he is French so it should and will be France , I believe. No disrespect to Morocco but they are like Wigan to France’s Man City. It may come down to how much self belief he has and so I am almost sure he will choose France.
He should play for a country where he feels he belongs to
But I suggest he waits until France knock at the door, because he has been making great improvements since joining Arsenal
If it was held during Winter, I’d be like Noooooooooo
Sorry Im selfish
But its next summer so I dont mind
BUT It shows how good Guendouzi is at only 19 years old
man ,play for Morocco, you will be a significant member of the team
Morocco any day man
i think this is the proverbial big fish in a small pond against a small fish in a big pond. If Guendouzi wants to play for the sake of appearing at an international competition he should choose Morocco but if his ambition is to achieve things at the greater level then it is best to work hard as he patiently waits for a call up from France. It may also come down to which team he would be most comfortable with. As a young man he needs to play for a team where he has a lot of colleagues and I imagine this would be France. However the ultimate decision lies with the player himself because there are many Brazilians playing international football in other countries.