He could have walked straight past the microphones
Thursday evening at the Campus, PSG training over, and Maghnes Akliouche stopped in the mixed zone when nobody expected him to. The reporters had come for questions about his role under Luis Enrique. They left with a headline about somebody else entirely.
France came up, and so did the new man in charge. Akliouche did not reach for the safe answer. “Zidane as coach, that is a good thing for France with him in charge of the team, I think everyone is happy with that choice.” Flat, unhedged, no media training visible.
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A shirt nobody has claimed yet
What followed told you more about his own season. “I hope this is the time to stake my claim for a place in the France team. I am working for that and giving everything every day for that aim, but there are other steps before that.”
Those steps are not abstract. Since arriving from Monaco this summer, Akliouche has been finding out what a genuinely stacked attacking department feels like, and what it means to be asked to play deeper than he ever did at the Stade Louis II. The opening weeks are an audition. They always are when a new national coach has just taken the job and the pecking order exists only in his head.
The calendar happens to be on his side
That may be the most useful thing he has going. A change of era with Les Bleus wipes the slate, particularly for players who never quite convinced the previous staff. Zidane arrives with tastes and ideas of his own, and nobody has seen them yet.
He is 24, a creator by trade, and he has just joined the club every camera in France points at. The circumstances could hardly be better arranged. Turning minutes into performances is the part he still owes, and the part he has not delivered often enough since the move.
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