N'Zogbia Delight At France Call Up
Wigan's flying French winger Charles N'Zogbia has admitted that he is flabbergasted by his first ever call up to the France squad, saying that he is desperate to get his chance against Norway next week.
N'Zogbia has got his chance in the squad after new France manager Laurent Blanc decided to ban the whole of the 23 man squad that went to the World Cup and attempted to strike over then manager Raymond Domenech's decision to send Nicolas Anelka home.
N'Zogbia did admit that he was fortunate that there were so many places in the France squad that were up for grabs, but refused to take anything away from himself in terms of effort, saying that it was a culmination of years of hard work that led to his call up.
N'Zogbia told L'Equipe: "I've been waiting for this for a long time.
"This proves that, with hard work, you can get there. Even though my inclusion is due to the absence of the World Cup players, it is a good chance to show what I can do.
"We will see how it goes in Norway, but I know very well that now that I have been included by Les Bleus, the hardest thing will be staying there."
In the mean time, French goalkeeper Steve Mandanda has admitted that he and the other players that are banned for the revolt at the World Cup were in the wrong and insisted that the rest of the Ligue 1 players should not be tarred with the same brush.
"We have learned a lot from our mistakes," Mandanda told L'Equipe. "What we did was b******* and we must abide by the sanction.
"But it is still a France game and we are of course disappointed not to participate."
"There is no reason why Ligue 1 players should be affected by the backlash of what happened there.
"This episode was unfortunate, but there is no need for everyone to be mixed up in it."
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