The French World Cup squad have posed for a team photo showing off the shirts of their first ever amateur football clubs.
France Players Show Off Their First Club shirts
We're used to seeing players wearing the recognisable colours of their elite level clubs and national teams, but the France squad have given us a look at the shirts of their first ever clubs. Posing in typical squad photo formation, each player is wearing or holding the jersey of the club where it all began for them as kids.
The players give a shoutout to the clubs they represented as kids.
Even if they still had their original jerseys from those days, they obviously would not fit into them today. Instead, they're wearing more recent versions obtained from the clubs. It seems that Raphael Varane and Théo Hernandez couldn't get their hands on any gear from their old teams in time for the photo, so they're holding up white shirts with the club names printed on the back.
Go behind the scenes of this wonderful tribute to amateur football 🙌#FiersdetreBleus pic.twitter.com/pTCDzAAh6N— French Team ⭐⭐ (@FrenchTeam) December 3, 2022Interesting to see too that Mbappé and William Saliba played together at AS Bondy in Paris, who must be very proud of their former players' success. One player is conspicuous by his absence from the photo; Matteo Guendouzi. Now a fan favourite at Marseille, he started out at their arch-rivals PSG, so a photo of him in the enemy's shirt would not have gone down well with OM supporters. Probably for the best that he sat this one out.
France's inspiration for the photoshoot was likely the Netherlands, whose squad trained in the shirts of their first amateur clubs earlier this year.
Awesome | Netherlands Players Train in Kit Of Their First Amateur Club
Would you like to see more teams follow this lead and highlight the clubs who helped these pros succeed in their careers? Comment below.