On paper, France’s attack is increasingly looking like a dream line-up for Didier Deschamps.
With Kylian Mbappe on one side and Ousmane Dembele on the other, the France coach can also count on Michael Olise in perhaps a quieter, yet equally important, role. And that is without even mentioning prodigy Desire Doue, winner of the FIFA Best Young Player Award at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™. France will certainly have enough magic up front to strike fear into their group opponents at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, namely Bolivia, Norway and Senegal.
And, what’s more, out on the pitch, that magic is real. Whilst Mbappe continues to rack up the numbers (40 goals in 39 matches in all competitions as of 16 April), and Dembele keeps showing week after week that his The Best FIFA Men’s Player 2025 award was no fluke, Olise is quite simply the form player in Europe right now.
In the Bayern Munich shirt, the London-born player is enjoying an outstanding season. With 18 goals and 25 assists in 43 matches across all competitions to date, Olise has been in unstoppable form. The Frenchman has produced one masterclass after another, both domestically and in the UEFA Champions League, where he once again shone in both legs of the quarter-final against Real Madrid, helping the German side to a 6-4 win on aggregate.
The first French player at a top European club since Franck Ribery (22) to provide as many assists in the 21st century, Olise has well and truly won over the Bayern fans, scoring an astonishing winner in stoppage time on Wednesday night against Los Merengues.
“He will surely be one of the best in the world one day,” his coach Vincent Kompany said of the player at a press conference on Tuesday. “He’s already on his way. This isn’t just a three-month spell — he’s been at this level for 18 months now. If he keeps this up, we’ll see just how far he can go.
“Michael is a fantastic player, but he’s only just getting started,” Deschamps added, tempering expectations after the attacking midfielder’s stunning display in his side’s 2-1 victory against Brazil on 26 March. In the France squad, where he has just 15 caps to his name, his influence is growing and, after a quiet start reflecting his reserved personality, Olise is making more and more of an impact, as he showed against the Auriverdes by setting up Hugo Ekitike for his side’s second.
Just 20 months after being thrown in at the deep end by Thierry Henry during Les Bleuets’ remarkable run at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the former Crystal Palace midfielder has made giant strides. “With him, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Henry said about the prodigy, now 24. He wasn’t wrong.
At his first World Cup, on North American soil, he could well be the missing piece for France in their quest for a historic triumph. In Deschamps’ words, he is “the one who brings clarity to the play and links up the attack,” or the one who creates and receives, who starts moves and sometimes finishes them too.
If he can carry his current form through into June and July, Les Bleus’ dream of a third World Cup victory will feel all the more real.
