The nearly 26-year-old Giroud was completely different from the future bearded version—he was still a clean-cut young man.
Giroud was born in Chambéry, France, a small city in central-eastern France more than 500 kilometers from Paris, which was also the hometown of French philosopher Rousseau and poet Clément.
Julien and Giroud chatted casually.
Giroud appeared tall and imposing but was actually introverted and famously good-natured—never fighting for anything, always wearing a smile.
"Hey, Italian, you're having a fierce season. You're going to win the championship."
While they were chatting, national team defender Debuchy walked over.
He was greeting Giroud.
They were already familiar with each other. Debuchy called Giroud "Italian" simply because both Giroud's grandmother and maternal grandmother were Italian.
Debuchy then looked at Julien and smiled. "You were really impressive last time. If only you were a left winger—then maybe I could have locked you down and we wouldn't have been eliminated."
Julien shook his head. "You couldn't stop me alone."
"Haha!"
Both Debuchy and Giroud laughed.
In the last match between Bastia and Lille, Debuchy played right-back and didn't face Julien directly.
Debuchy didn't mind Julien's words. He had known Julien since Julien was still at Lille, though they hadn't interacted much at the time.
Debuchy was a product of Lille's youth academy, promoted from Lille's B team to the first team in 2003 and had been there ever since.
He was a year older than Giroud.
Currently in his prime, several Premier League clubs were interested in him and making contact. Word was that Wenger had also taken a liking to him.
"You're what they call a late bloomer, while he's young and famous. Both are admirable," Debuchy said, looking at Giroud.
Giroud was indeed impressive this season, clearly set to be a 20-goal scorer in Ligue 1.
Giroud looked at Julien. He could truly feel the difference between genius and ordinary people.
He himself only got his first chance with the national team last November, when he was already 25 years old.
But how old was Julien now?
Seventeen!
He wouldn't turn 18 until the end of the year.
According to media reports, Paris Saint-Germain was already willing to offer Julien a contract worth 100,000 euros per month.
When he was 20, five years ago, he signed with Istres for just 7,000 euros per month.
This was the difference between geniuses and normal people.
The three continued chatting as more and more players arrived. National team center-back Rami, who was also a former Lille teammate of Debuchy, came over to say hello.
Soon, Laurent Blanc arrived.
After looking around at all the players, he frowned slightly.
Evra, Ribéry, and three of the Four Little Swans still hadn't arrived.
They were late.
Blanc had everyone do some light warm-up exercises. About ten minutes later, Evra and the others arrived.
As captain, he was actually late, but Evra showed no awareness that being late was wrong. He greeted Blanc and joined the team for training.
Ribéry, Benzema, and the others also rejoined the squad.
Blanc didn't look pleased but didn't explode. He simply continued leading the warm-up.
However, when Nasri and Ben Arfa rejoined the team, they glanced toward where Julien was positioned.
Julien met their gazes.
Both sets of eyes held hostility, but more than that, contempt.
Julien naturally knew why.
After all, the current French national team's right-wing starters were Nasri and Ben Arfa.
The left wing was Ribéry's domain.
Even though he was gradually aging and his physical capabilities were declining, he remained France's sharpest blade.
This time, 33 players were called up to the national team, but only 23 would make the final European Championship squad.
Players in the same position were naturally in competition.
However, in the first few days, the players would certainly maintain superficial civility.
The national team had seven days of training camp with no friendly matches.
Only one internal scrimmage.
That would be when they truly had to give their all.
Cutting 10 players from 33—this ratio was quite dramatic. To stay, you had to prove you were stronger than others in your position!
The fifteen-minute warm-up ended.
Then came group training, with different assistant coaches leading players in different positions.
Blanc moved around the training ground, observing each player's performance.
The selection process had actually already begun.
Not waiting for the final scrimmage or next month's friendly match.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
Suddenly, assistant coach Crétin's voice rang out across the field, with anger in his tone.
Blanc immediately looked over.
It was that troublemaker Nasri again!!
Here's what happened:
Julien was clutching his ankle, head down, but his eyes were full of rage. They had just been playing "monkey in the middle"—a possession game where everyone took turns being the "monkey."
When it was Nasri's turn to be the monkey, as he was trying to win the ball, he actually made a sliding tackle at Julien.
If Julien hadn't reacted quickly enough and dodged some of it, he would have been injured.
Facing Crétin's questioning, Nasri got up and shrugged. "I was just eager to get the ball back. Sorry."
Then he walked over to Julien, saying "sorry" with his mouth, but when he bent down to check on Julien's condition, he said, "Welcome to the national team, kid."
The team doctor came over.
Nasri turned and walked away directly, seeming not as apologetic as his words suggested.
The doctor examined Julien and felt there was no problem, but whenever Julien moved, he said it hurt.
The doctor didn't dare take any chances.
He quickly informed Blanc of the situation, and Blanc said, "Get Julien to a thorough examination immediately."
Blanc was terrified that Julien might be injured—this was the treasure that Zidane had entrusted to him.
Then he thought about Nasri.
This kid had never been well-behaved since his first call-up to the national team.
During the 2008 European Championship, Nasri, as a newcomer to the national team, got into a conflict with Henry on the team bus. Gallas, who had a good relationship with Henry, even got into a physical fight with Nasri.
Since then, he had never been well-behaved.
Even now, he would occasionally criticize Blanc in front of the media, feeling that he wasn't suitable to coach the French team.
Blanc had long been dissatisfied with Nasri.
But Nasri was indeed playing brilliantly at Arsenal, and his ability was recognized by most French fans, which gave him the capital to be arrogant about his talent.
Why call up Julien?
Besides Zidane's recommendation, more importantly, Blanc felt that Julien might be able to replace Nasri's starting position on the right wing.
Why had Nasri always been so arrogant?
Wasn't it because he had no competition for the right wing position in the national team?
Now, Julien was here!
He just hadn't expected Nasri to be so malicious, using such tactics against Julien on the very first day of training.
As Blanc watched Julien being taken away by the team doctor, he saw Nasri's smug smile.
His heart was filled with disgust.
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