France coach Laurent Blanc has kept a promise to leave 23 World Cup upstarts at home as he recalled Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri and Philippe Mexes to a 22-man squad for a friendly against Norway.
Blanc took over from Raymond Domenech after France’s controversial World Cup campaign, which ended in a premature first round exit following the players’ controversial decision to strike.
Benzema, Nasri and Mexes were left out of Domenech’s squad for the ill-fated trip to South Africa in June, but return to headline a squad brimming with fresh faces and relatively unknown names on the international stage.
Lassana Diarra, of Real Madrid, was a regular under Domenech but was ruled out of the World Cup at the last minute with illness. Diarra makes his return to midfield alongside the likes of Arsenal’s Nasri and Charles N’Zogbia, who plays for Wigan.
Marseille striker Hatem Ben Arfa, who narrowly missed out on selection for the World Cup, also returns alongside Real Madrid’s Benzema.
Other than the return of Benzema, Nasri and Roma defender Mexes, the squad contains 13 players who could make their France debut.
Seven of that 13 have never before been called up.
The seven entirely new France faces are defenders Mathieu Debuchy, Mamadou Sakho and Benoit Tremoulinas, midfielders Yohan Cabaye, Blaise Matuidi and N’Zogbia and striker Jeremy Menez.
France play Norway in a friendly away on Wednesday. Blanc’s first real challenge as coach will be to steer Les Bleus successfully through qualifying for the 2012 European Championships. The first match is against Belarus on September 3.
Meanwhile, disgraced striker Nicolas Anelka could yet play a part in France’s bid to reach the Euro finals.
The 31-year-old Chelsea striker was sent home early from the World Cup after a dressing-room bust-up with Domenech. But Blanc insists that the door remains open to any French player and that he would certainly not bar Anelka from a recall.
“I don’t have the kind of information that would prompt me to take such a radical decision,” he said.