Of the 1,248 selected for the 2026 World Cup, nearly 8%, or 99 footballers, were born in France, according to analysis from Opta, verified by Le Monde. Among them, only 23 wear the French team's jersey. The others are mainly spread across African national teams: 13 for Algeria, 11 for the Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 for Senegal, eight for Côte d'Ivoire, seven for Tunisia and six for Morocco. Haiti's team includes 12, while Qatar and Spain each have just one.
France stands well ahead of the Netherlands in the rankings of World Cup "suppliers." The Netherlands counts 67 players born on its territory, with 25 playing for Curaçao, an autonomous country within the kingdom. Behind them, Germany and England each reach about half the number of French-born players.
Another noteworthy point is that all 99 footballers born in France were also trained in the country. "This is a clear indicator of the strength of our training system. While it's designed to benefit our national team, we can see it has an impact far beyond that," said Hubert Fournier, Technical Director (DTN) at the French Football Federation (FFF), in an interview with Le Monde.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2026/06/30/nearly-100-players-born-in-france-were-selected-for-the-2026-world-cup-but-only-23-play-for-france_6755019_9.html
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