Is Trezeguet Not Good Enough for France?

David Trezeguet is a player who has netted 10 goals from 11 matches recently. The praise from Marcello Lippi is: “He does not score goals. He is the personification of goal.” Yet, David Trezeguet does not enjoy the favour of France coach Raymond Domenech.

‘Trezegol’, who has scored 146 goals from 237 Serie A and European matches with Juventus, 37 from 70 games with Les Bleus, is not even a second choice striker in his national team.

Everything is being built around Thierry Henry, who, let’s face it, also has a pretty good scoring record though not as impressive as his former Monaco team mate.

Olympique Lyon striker Karim Benzema, arguably the classiest French player since Zinedine Zidane, and Nicolas Anelka, who has improved a lot in recent years despite playing for strugglers Bolton Wanderers, are both preferred to Trezeguet.

That’s understandable. But before a must-win Euro qualifier against Lithuania last month, Domenech chose Monaco forward Frederic Piquionne ahead of Trezeguet, a proven match winner. Olympique Marseille striker Djibril Cisse (though he does not strike that much) has also been preferred to Trezeguet.

OK, Henry netted twice against Lithuania and his class has helped France almost secure their place in next year’s Euro finals. However, Trezegol won Euro 2000 for France. Some will say he lost the World Cup final by missing his penalty kick, but having played only a handful of minutes throughout the tournament, his preparation could hardly have been worse.