2023: Warren Zaire-Emery at 17 years and 8 months
If Didier Deschamps, coach of the French football team, brings Warren Zaire-Emery onto the field on November 18 against Gibraltar or on November 21 against Greece, the midfielder born on March 8, 2006 in Montreuil (Seine -Saint-Denis) would obtain his first selection at 17 years, 8 months and 10 (or 13) days. He would become the youngest player in the history of the Blues, at least in the modern era, after the Liberation. Since joining the Paris Saint-Germain training center at the age of 8, the player has been used to skipping ahead: he has been upgraded in each age category. He is also the youngest footballer to have played a Ligue 1 match in the colors of PSG. He played his first Champions League match at 16.
2020: Eduardo Camavinga at 17 years and 9 months
Born on November 10, 2002, Eduardo Camavinga turned international on September 8, 2020, at the age of 17 years, 9 months and 28 days. Of Congolese-Angolan origin, who arrived in France at the age of one, he was naturalized French in November 2019, just a few months before joining the national team. He has already played in a World Cup final in 2022, lost in Qatar against Argentina. Trained in Rennes, the midfielder was quickly spotted by the biggest European clubs. Since 2021, he has played for the prestigious Real Madrid, with whom he has already won a Champions League in 2022. He has twelve caps for the French team and is recognized as one of the best midfielders in the world.
2017: Kylian Mbappé at 18 years and 3 months
Born on December 20, 1998, Kylian Mbappé joined the France team on March 25, 2017, at the age of 18 years, 3 months and 5 days. The player had already totaled twenty caps before even turning 20 and today has seventy-three. The striker has scored forty-three goals in blue. Born in Paris, he made his debut in Bondy (Seine-Saint-Denis), his classes at the National Football Institute, then played his first match in Ligue 1 with AS Monaco in 2015. He won the World Cup 2018 in Russia, and achieved a hat-trick in the final of the 2022 World Cup. Kylian Mbappé also features in another list of records: the amount of his transfer from Monaco to Paris-Saint-Germain, in 2017: 180 million euros. And this was before he turned 20.
1963: Georges Lech at 18 years and 4 months
Born on June 2, 1945, Georges Lech played his first match for the French team at 18 years, 4 months and 24 days old. Son of a Polish miner from Pas-de-Calais, he started football with the Carabiniers de Billy-Montigny, before playing professionally from 1962 at RC Lens, FC Sochaux then Stade de Reims. Considered a formidable talent, the striker only totaled thirty-five caps for the French team and seven goals between 1963 and 1973. In his defense, the player had the misfortune of playing for the national team at a time when the Blues were only marginal figures on the international scene, unable to qualify for any major competition.
1955: Maryan Wisniewski, aged 18 years and 2 months
Born on February 1, 1937, Maryan Wisniewski became international at the age of 18 years, 2 months and 2 days, on April 3, 1955. Son of a Polish miner, the Lens player was part of the selection which competed in the Coupe du world 1958 in Sweden. The right winger will be the spearhead of this team, with Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine. His precise passes helped make him the top scorer in the competition, with thirteen goals, a record that still stands. France finishes third. A sign of his talent, after Raymond Kopa, he is one of the first French players recruited by a foreign club, here Sampdoria Genoa. Maryan Wisniewski died in 2022.
