5 World Cup stars who could have played for France, but didn’t

Benatia and Higuain were both born in France
Benatia and Higuain were both born in France

#4 Raphael Guerreiro (Portugal)

Guerreiro won the Euro in 2016 beating his country of birth in the final
Guerreiro won the Euro in 2016 beating his country of birth in the final

Portugal’s Raphael Guerreiro was born in France to a Portuguese father and a French mother. He spent the entirety of his formative years playing in France before making his professional debut for Caen.

In 2013, he moved from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1 with Lorient and in the same year, he made his debut for the Portugal U21 team. A year later, he would make his senior debut for Portugal although he had language barriers.

His debut for Portugal was against Armenia and during the same international break, he would score the last minute winner against Argentina in a 1-0 win.

The Borussia Dortmund man was part of their Euro 2016 winning squad before going on to represent them at the Confederations Cup and the World Cup. The 24-year-old has so far played 28 times in Portugal colours.

Although Guerreiro was born in France, he is an ardent supporter of SL Benfica.

Guerriero's international teammate, Anthony Lopes, who is Olympique Lyon’s goalkeeper, was also born in France but plays for Portugal where his parents were born.

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Edited by Sripad
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