Forwards
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Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon), Ousmane Dembele (Borussia Dortmund), Hatem Ben Arfa (Nice), Nabil Fekir (Lyon) and Kevin Gameiro (Sevilla)
France are leaving their best striker, Karim Benzema, at home for the Euros. Benzema was the accused in a sex-tape issue involving his fellow countryman Valbuena and one has to assume that Deschamps chose to drop the Real Madrid man because of the same. He finished last season with 31 goals and 8 assists to his name and helped Real Madrid win the Champions League.
Alexandre Lacazette of Lyon had a slow start to the season last time around after an explosive season in 2014/15. Despite this, he finished the season with 21 league goals and as the second highest scorer in the league.
Ben Arfa was another player who impressed in Ligue 1 this season. The former Newcastle man was finally doing justice to his talent and ended the season with 17 league goals which is the fourth highest in the league. His performance earned him a recall to the senior side earlier but was surprisingly excluded from the final squad.
Youngsters Nabil Fekir and Ousmane Dembele are two players who are sure to play a big role in the future of the French national team but couldn’t make the cut this around. Fekir was a favourite of Deschamps, but a ligament injury he suffered during the early part of last season while on international duty was a major reason behind his exclusion as he missed most of the season. Dembele’s case is different because he gained a lot of media attention after scoring 12 goals and providing 5 assists at such a young age and his performance earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund, but wasn’t enough to get selected for France.
The final name on the list is that of Kevin Gameiro who inspired Sevilla to another Europa League title. The former PSG man scored 29 goals and provided 7 assists in all competitions and was still surprisingly overlooked for the Euro.
