Sometimes a player just seems to have a perfect moment, a tournament where they really announce themselves as a superstar on the biggest stage.
We saw it happen with Kylian Mbappe for France at the 2018 World Cup – we knew before we lifted the trophy in Russia that he was an incredible talent, but that was the time he really arrived.
This summer, I hope another France player, Michael Olise, can do the same in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Everyone knows Michael quite well already, of course, because he plays for Bayern Munich and we see him a lot in the Champions League.
But this is his first World Cup and he has only played 16 games for France so far, so he is still very new on the international scene.
Before the 2024 Olympics in Paris, I don’t think many people in France really knew him, when he had just moved to Germany from Crystal Palace. Some people probably still don’t know quite how good he is now.
I worked with him at that tournament, when I was assistant coach with Thierry Henry for the French under-23 team, and I thought then that could have been his moment. The Olympics is obviously a major event, and we reached the final, and almost won gold.
But the World Cup is something different, and this is Michael’s first big tournament with the first team. I will be watching him at this World Cup as a pundit for BBC Sport and he is the player I am most looking forward to seeing play game after game at this level, and showing everyone exactly what he can do.
Olise celebrates after scoring France’s first goal in their 2-0 win over Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier in September 2025. The 24-year-old has scored four goals in 16 senior appearances for Les Bleus.
I know how good he is, and what a top guy he is too. If he can take the season he has just had for Bayern, and bring his magic to the World Cup, then he will be seen as one of the very best that we have in France.
And, if he performs as well as he can do, then the team will perform well too.
‘Cherki never looks uncomfortable on the ball’
Olise is not the only France player who has enjoyed success with their club but is at their first World Cup, or first major international finals.
He’s also not the only one I think can make a big impact if they get a chance to shine.
Like Olise, Rayan Cherki was in our under-23 squad for the 2024 Olympics. From watching him closely, he is an incredible talent, someone with so much creative quality with both feet that he never looks uncomfortable on the ball.
He was not the complete player then, in terms of his work without possession, and he could be frustrating – but I can understand why.
I think every player matures differently – everyone has got his own journey, and it is affected by how you are used by your coach.
I see it now I am a manager myself, because there is nothing that is more important than winning points. So, if you have a player who wins you points, then you have a tendency to kind of close your eyes, or at least one of them, about what he is not doing and ignore that because he made the team win.
Because of that, I think when you have been a player like Rayan, who has been the best player in every team he has played for since he was six, it is not that you are learning differently, but you build yourself up from a child into a young man knowing you can get away with stuff – or not doing stuff – in games, because you are so good.
Some of that is unconscious behaviour, I think. Rayan maybe wouldn’t think about defending because he did not see football that way. He didn’t have to.
That’s fine when you are a kid, but year after year this is happening and your coaches are allowing you to do that. Then you get to a certain level, where you need to be good at all five phases of the game – in possession, out of possession, attacking transition, defensive transition and set-pieces.
And, if you are not used to working without the ball, and getting in shape to defend, then you have to reset in a way.
That reset was the challenge for Pep Guardiola when he took Rayan to Manchester City last year, and I think they have both done very well at making it happen.
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