France

Confederation – UEFA (Europe)

FIFA Code – FRA

Nickname(s) – Les Bleus (The Little Blues); Les Tricolores (The Tri-colours)

Tournament History

The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup is the sixth appearances for France in this youth tournament. They won this trophy once in 2001.

Also, the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup is their first consecutive appearances in the FIFA U-17 World Cup history (2015 and 2017)

Year	Hosts	Final Status
1987	Canada	Quarter-Finals
*2001*	*Trinidad and Tobago*	*Champions*
2007	South Korea	Quarter-Finals
2011	Mexico	Quarter-Finals
2015	Chile	Round of 16

(Note: The best performance(s) is/are marked in bold and italic)

Present Status (for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup)

i) The Journey: France secured their place for the upcoming 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup after finishing in the fifth place in 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. In that European competition, France had lost in the quarter-final against Spain but had won the next playoff game against Hungary to secure their place for the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup.

ii) Head Coach: Lionel Rouxel (Nationality – France) has become the head coach of France youth team since 2015. Rouxel believes in attacking football with the 4-2-3-1 formation.

iii) Full Squad: (Goalkeepers) Yahia Fofana, Bryan Bernard, Illan Meslier

(Defenders) Vincent Collet, Andy Joseph, Oumar Mickael, William Ludovic Brandon, Batista Mendy, Maxence Lacroix, Melvin Bard

(Midfielders) Claudio Gomez, Aurelien Djani, Maxence Caqueret, Mathis Christophe,

(Forwards) Yacine Adli, Amine Gouiri, Willem Geubells, Alan Kerouedan, Wilson Isidor, Alexis Flips, Lenny Pintor

iv) Player(s) To Watch Out:

Amine Gouiri (Present Club – Olympique Lyon)

Amine Gouiri is a dangerous striker who had won the Golden Boot award (tournament award for scoring most goals) in 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship after scoring eight goals in that tournament (excluding one goal which had scored in the playoff game against Hungary to earn the U-17 World Cup spot).