Le Parisien claims that PSG's Lucas Chevalier was very close to a World Cup call-up. He would have made the squad if he had played against Lorient or Brest.
By leaving Lille to sign with PSG, Lucas Chevalier probably did not expect to live such a season. Pushed to the bench by Matvey Safonov, the goalkeeper will not play in the World Cup with France, and it came down to almost nothing.
Annus horribilis. We do not know whether Chevalier speaks Latin, but the 24-year-old French goalkeeper deserves to have this Latin expression serve as the summary of a complicated sporting and personal year.
Promised a bright future when he joined PSG to replace Gianluigi Donnarumma, the former Lille goalkeeper lost everything in a few months, with Luis Enrique ultimately deciding, rightly, to make Safonov his starting goalkeeper.
After months away from the Parisian goal, Chevalier was not selected by Didier Deschamps for the 2026 World Cup, the French national coach preferring Robin Risser. Yet Le Parisien affirms that it took almost nothing for the PSG backup goalkeeper to be in the France squad.
More than his demotion at PSG, it is above all the fact that Chevalier has not played for several months that has convinced Deschamps not to select him. And his recent thigh injury, suffered in training, was decisive.
"According to our information, Chevalier would probably have been part of the France squad if he had played even one of the two matches, against Lorient or Brest, during which the third Parisian goalkeeper, Renato Marin, ultimately officiated," explains Stephanie Bianchi, journalist for the Parisian outlet.
Still absent from the Parisian squad for the last trip, Sunday in Paris in Ligue 1, the native of Calais will have even more regrets upon learning all this.
Once the season is over, we will need to know what will become of Chevalier at PSG. It is hard to see him accepting spending a second consecutive year on the PSG bench in the shadow of Safonov, knowing Luis Enrique has decided that the Russian goalkeeper will remain the No. 1 next season and that the young Italian Marin is likely to gain prominence.
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