Grenier rewarded for recent form with France call

LYON , France (AFP) –

Lyon’s French midfielder Clement Grenier celebrates on May 19, 2013 at the Ray stadium, in Nice. Grenier has been rewarded for a dazzling season with a call-up to the France squad for a pair of friendlies in South America.

Lyon midfielder Clement Grenier has been rewarded for a dazzling season with a call-up to the France squad for a pair of friendlies in South America.

With Manchester City’s Samir Nasri a doubt, 22-year-old Grenier has been included in Didier Deschamps squad for matches against Uruguay and Brazil next month while Bordeaux’s Benoit Tremoulinas has replaced another City player Gael Clichy, ruled out with a hernia.

Having almost been sold to Nice last August, Grenier made the most of an injury to playmaker Yoann Gourcuff in the early part of this campaign to cement a place in the Lyon team, scoring seven goals and providing five assists.

Such has been his rise this season, that Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has slapped a 37-million euro ($48-million) price tag on his midfielder.

Grenier joined Lyon as an 11-year-old and signed his first professional contract at 17.

He has won the European under-19 and under-20 championships with France and was part of the team that reached the under-20 world championships semi-finals in 2010.

He played so well in that tournament that he replaced the then highly-rated Gael Kakuta of Chelsea as the French playmaker.

Tremoulinas, 27, has played once for France in a friendly victory over Italy in November.