Giroud explains why France still needs Kante years after retirement plan

Olivier Giroud says France still gets too much from N'Golo Kante to treat him like a finished player. Eight years after Kante talked about stepping away from international football, Giroud is pointing to the same qualities that once made him indispensable at Chelsea and with Les Bleus: positioning, discipline and a mentality that settles a team when the pressure rises.

The conversation Giroud described took place after France won the 2018 World Cup, when both men were back at Chelsea and Kante was weighing whether to retire from the national team. Giroud urged him to continue because he was, in Giroud’s words, “top of the world” then, and France’s latest tournament cycle has shown why that advice mattered. Kante is now 35, but Didier Deschamps has continued to view him as a crucial part of the squad, not as a ceremonial veteran who has been kept around for sentiment.

That judgment became clearer when Deschamps recalled Kante for Euro 2024 after about two years out of the France setup. The call-up surprised some observers, but Kante answered it with the same efficiency that defined his best years. France’s 1-0 win over Austria on June 17, 2024, was one of the clearest examples of that. Kante’s work rate and reading of danger helped France control the game without relying only on younger, more explosive attacking options.

The wider selection debate has kept circling around France’s balance between tournament-tested veterans and fresher legs. Kylian Mbappe and Marcus Thuram offer pace and directness, but Kante still gives Deschamps a different kind of control, the sort that does not always show up in highlight clips. His spell in Saudi Arabia, including time at Al-Ittihad before his move to Fenerbahçe, only sharpened the question of whether he remained at the level required for France. Yet French reporting in November 2024 said he was not definitively out of the picture, a sign that Deschamps still sees value in his defensive range and habits.

Giroud, who retired from international football after Euro 2024, ended his France career with 57 goals in 137 appearances, the most in national team history. His own exit underlined the same dilemma France keeps facing: when a squad is chasing trophies, experience is not just nostalgia. It is often the difference between control and chaos.