The defender’s grounded nature and self-confidence were instrumental to his World Cup breakthrough, according to the France boss. <\/p>\n
Didier Deschamps has labelled Benjamin Pavard a new “star” as the defender’s profile soars in the afterglow of France’s triumphant World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n
Pavard, 22, exceeded expectations to start all but one match in Russia as Les Bleus were crowned champions for the second time.<\/p>\n
The Stuttgart defender, whose stunning strike in the last-16 win over Argentina was voted goal of the tournament , is now reportedly the target of interest from top clubs in England and Germany.<\/p>\n
Article continues below<\/span> <\/p>\n Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over <\/p>\n Bayern Munich and Tottenham have both been strongly linked with the former Lille man and Deschamps says the recognition is richly deserved.<\/p>\n “Despite their former status and some inexperience at this level, Benjamin Pavard and Lucas [Hernandez] were brilliant and stabilised the defence,” the France coach told\u00a0 Kicker <\/em> .<\/p>\n “These two fighters made a big difference. Benjamin has become a star\u00a0and he deserves it.<\/p>\n “He’s not so media-focused. He’s very friendly, appreciated by his team-mates, and has an incredible amount of self-confidence.<\/p>\n “He once said to me: ‘I’m not afraid of anyone!’ So I told him: ‘You can think that, but never say it to the media.'”<\/p>\n France return to competitive action in September with a trip to Munich for their opening UEFA Nations League fixture.<\/p>\n Deschamps endorsed Germany’s decision to retain Joachim Low despite the ignominy of a group-stage exit in Russia, revealing his “great appreciation” for the 2014\u00a0World Cup-winning coach.<\/p>\n “It will be a great pleasure for me [to see Low],” he said. “Continuity is very important for national teams… [it’s] better for the players and also the coach.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The defender’s grounded nature and self-confidence were instrumental to his World Cup breakthrough, according to the France boss. Didier Deschamps has labelled Benjamin Pavard a new “star” as the defender’s profile soars in the afterglow of France’s triumphant World Cup campaign. Pavard, 22, exceeded expectations to start all but one match in Russia as Les…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n