L 'Equipe: Mbappe or give up the captaincy of the national team, Deschamps will communicate with him alone(qingqing)

Will Mbappe regain the captain's armband for the first gathering in 2025? When the French Football Federation announced the 23-man squad at its headquarters on Thursday, Deschamps had no answer and deferred a decision until March, when the Real Madrid forward will return: "Today I will not think about what is not on the agenda, everything will take its course."

In a way, the coach left the captaincy discussion open, which would add to the conversation for the two international break days Mbappe is not involved in. Like everyone else, Deschamps has seen or heard that his striker is considering giving up the captain's armband.

L 'Equipe sources say Deschamps intends to have a chat with Mbappe before the next meeting, just to find out if the captaincy has become too much for him and if it is affecting his enjoyment of playing for France.

If Mbappe says he wants to stay on as France captain, Deschamps is likely to let him keep the job, but if he prefers to step down and the coach listens to his options, he will then have to choose a new captain. The logic of the three post-Euro training sessions suggests that the new captain could be Kante, Chuameni or Knaat, all three of whom wore the armband between October and November.

Kanter is a consensus player widely admired by the coaching staff, and despite his somewhat introverted personality, he said he "feels ready" to take on the role. But the last two international break days have shown that the other two players have shown better leadership in good times. France's coaching staff have particularly praised Konate's leadership during a recent training camp and the Liverpool defender is ideally placed to become France's captain, but only if he can establish himself as a starting centre-back.

The same can be said of midfielder Chuameni, who has had to rediscover a higher level of performance at Real Madrid before the national team faces new competition from Quadio Kone. With four months to go until the next training session, it's hard to say which of the two will be picked if there is a reshuffle.