With France being represented at the Toulon Tournament U21, it was a surprise that a French U21 were playing Italy U21 last night in a friendly but it was no surprise that Moussa Dembele once again scored for les Bleus!
This was the Celtic striker’s 5th goal in four games for the U21s and his 9th in 13 caps. Dembele was once again impressive with both L Equipe and FFF noting his contribution to the side.
Another Dembele goal for the French U21 team pic.twitter.com/PrDw3hQfeO
— Focus on Celtic (@FocusOnCeltic) May 29, 2018
Olivier Ntcham came of the bench and had a chance to win the game in stoppage time at the Leo La-grange Stadium.
Dembele’s future is a hot topic in France. Indications across The Channel suggest that if he is to leave Celtic this summer then his intention is to return to his homeland rather than back to the EPL.
His reputation in France has never been higher where he is seen as a future star of Les Bleus. While it was reported that it was a disappointment for him that he failed to make the World Cup squad these reports don’t stand up to scrutiny when you see the strength and depth of the French pool and the players that were also left out.
Dider Deschumps has an embarrassment of riches in forward options. Kylian Mbappe, Olivier Giroud, Ousmane Dembele, Florian Thauvin, Thomas Lemar, Nabil Fekir and Antoine Griezmann all made the squad.
The reserve list would make most of the other squads in the tournament. Anthony Martial, Alexandre Lacazette, Wissam Ben Yedder and Kingsley Conman are all on that list.
Moussa lacks the experience of all those players and is still in an early stage of his development. Reports suggest that Marseille are front-runners to sign him with the club now being backed by wealthy American businessman Frank McCourt and with the highly regarded Rudi Garcia in charge they made the UEFA Europa League Final this season.
Any transfer won’t happen until later in the summer with Mario Balotelli also interesting the club after Kostas Mitroglou failed to impress after his big money move from Benfica last summer.
There is also the small problem that Marseille failed to qualify for the Champions League finishing behind Lyon, Monaco and PSG.
Lyon are poised to sell forward Nabil Fekir to Liverpool, which may see Lyon look towards our star as a replacement.
Dembele though is in no rush to leave Celtic and as we have stated before he would not rule out signing a contract extension to stay in Glasgow a little longer and to get the chance to continue his development under Brendan Rodgers.
Whatever happens, French eyes will remain on Moussa.
