Rabiot criticized for rejecting World Cup standby spot

PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot “has made a huge mistake” in refusing to be a World Cup standby player, France manager Didier Deschamps said yesterday as his squad assembled at their Clairefontaine training centre.

Rabiot was omitted from the main 23man squad and then emailed Deschamps saying he would not “be able to follow the training programme” laid out for the 11 standbys. “I can understand his immense disappointment,” said Deschamps, adding that Rabiot “has dropped himself, insisting on being a selector. I dare to hope that decisions like this will help him grow up”.

“At the highest level there is no place for moodiness, one has to be professional in all circumstances.” Asked if the 23year-old Rabiot could one day return to the France squad, Deschamps answered: “I never take extreme positions. He’s put himself in the wrong, full stop.”

Before Deschamps spoke, his boss, Noel Le Graet, the president of the French football federation, issued a statement that said Rabiot “has made a bad decision” and “punished and sentenced himself on his own”. Le Graet assumed the roles of both sympathetic mentor and stern disciplinarian.

Rabiot, Le Graet said, “is a player of high quality and a likeable boy, who has always behaved well in the national squad,” before adding “his disappointment does not allow him to give up and not make himself available for the French team”.

The issue even echoed along France’s corridors of power yesterday. “I think that when one has the honour of being called to wear the tricolour shirt and defend the colours of your country, one answers ‘present’, whatever the role,” said government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux, after the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace.Rabiot, who has six France caps, was placed on standby in case one of the first-choice players was hurt before the final deadline for submitting the squad on June 4. — AFP