Adrien Rabiot (April 3, 1995) aimed very high when he was a regular in the PSG engine room at just 20 years old. However, his wayward character made him a rebel, with or without a cause, he did not enter there. Of promise with Les Bleus to bad boy after his refusal to go with the substitute team for the 2018 World Cup. Now, Deschamps has awarded his great end of the season post-pandemic with Juventus and has given him another chance, including him among his 23. It is up to Rabiot to take advantage of the pardon, but how did it get to this situation? L''Équipe sheds light with a chronology.
In November 2016 he was summoned with the absolute for the first time and, at the first exchange, he accompanied Kanté and Pogba in the Didier Deschamps media line. The result (0-0 against Ivory Coast) was not the desired one, but L'Équipe highlighted his performance: “A promising debut, asking for the ball and trying to play forward”. After the initial green shoots began the first signs of rupture. In March of the following year he received his first criticism from the press, “he walked around the field and his technical contribution was very limited”, after a defeat against Spain (0-2).
That gap with the media focus increased months later, in November 2017. As L'Équipe points out, Rabiot starts from the bench in a key Bulgaria-France for French interests, but an injury to Kanté forces him to enter the pitch in the 34th minute. The Deschamps men win the match (0-1), but the performance of our protagonist, who did not expect such adverse weather conditions in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, is far from what was expected. His excuses in the mixed zone did not go down well within the federation: “It was quite hard, it was very cold. Also, I was afraid of injuring myself playing in conditions like these”.
Decline and rebirth
So we get to the famous rudeness of May 2018. Rabiot, who had lost preponderance in the scheme blue, is not among the 23 men chosen by Deschamps to play the World Cup From Russia. However, It does appear on the reserve list, a fact that Saint-Maurice does not like and so he makes it known to the coach. Through an email he refuses to be part of the reservations. “I am convinced that he made a serious mistake in making that decision,” reasons Deschamps.
After this, the selection became a desert for Rabiot. Absences helped, in large part, by his controversy leaving PSG. His refusal to renew made him a perennial inhabitant of the bench until, free and at zero cost, he ended up at Juventus last summer. With Vecchia Signora, he only started three of the first 15 Serie A games. However, from then on he opened a gap in Maurizio Sarri's scheme and, especially after confinement, it regained the level set by the European promise poster years ago. Deschamps has decided to pardon him and give him another chance. We will see if our protagonist knows how to take advantage of it.