5 replacements for Laurent Koscielny in the France national team

Modified May 04, 2018 10:29 GMT

Koscielny could be out of the World Cup

#3 Kurt Zouma

Kurt Zouma is currently on loan at Stoke City

On loan at Stoke City from Chelsea, Kurt Zouma has been crucial in keeping Stoke's chances of staying in the Premier League alive. He has appeared 32 times for the Potters in the Premier League this season and only 2 of those have come off the bench.

Zouma, just like Adil Rami, is quite a tall customer and is immense in aerial duels. He averages winning 3 aerial duels per game, which is not at all bad for a 23-year-old Premier League defender who's playing in a team that has been in dismal form this season.

Kurt Zouma is not one to get flustered on the big nights and very recently, he put in quite an impressive shift against Liverpool at Anfield and kept their rampant attackers from scoring.

Like so many other French defenders, Zouma is good with the ball at his feet though he could improve on his passing range. However, he makes up for that with his ability to read the game well and the focus with which he goes about his duties.

Zouma is definitely one for the future and both France and the player will benefit a lot if he's given a seat on the plane to Russia.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

Know More

Edited by Amit Mishra