Koundé loses place with France and FC Barcelona

Jules Koundé continues to be sidelined from action with FC Barcelona and the France national team, having lost his starting position with the Catalan team, and this situation has repeated itself during the current international break.

Jules Koundé has sat on the bench in 6 out of 7 matches for FC Barcelona in La Liga, and he has not participated in the last 3 encounters, while he only started against Rayo Vallecano and Feyenoord.

With the France national team, coach Zinedine Zidane gave Jules Koundé the opportunity to start against Turkey, and he played the full match, which ended in a 1-0 victory for France. However, he remained on the bench against Belgium and Italy without getting any minutes.

Mundo Deportivo has reported that Pierre Kalulu, a player for Juventus, started both matches against Belgium and Italy, which has kept Jules Koundé out of Zinedine Zidane's considerations, with the upcoming match between France and Belgium awaited to see how the competition between the players shapes up.

Hans Flick has previously stated that he relies on Eric García at right-back, with the possibility of moving Koundé back to centre-back later depending on the team's needs.

Flick stated that Koundé is an amazing professional who works very hard in training, noting that he has spoken to him about the possibility of playing as a centre-back, emphasizing that selection decisions are always linked to the team's interests.