Domenech gives Mandanda a shot at No.1

The French team seems to be losing too many players to Raymond Domenech’s tyranny but there are many young hopefuls who have gotten the run-out after these debacles. Steve Mandanda is one of those young players who is looking to take advantage of the situation is Marseille goalkeeper, Steve Mandanda.

Congolese by birth, Steve came to France at an extremely early age. The 23-year old keeper made his debut at the age of 21, at Le Havre AC. In two years, he was a got 67 appearances and was the first choice keeper as soon as he made his debut. He started off at Le Havre and the ball went past him, for the first time, after four games. He had a failed trial at Aston Villa and came to Marseille as an understudy to Cedric Carroso. Carroso, luckily for Steve, injured his knee badly and was out for six months. The man, who came in as the understudy, got ample time to settle down and become the first choice keeper at the club. At the international level, Steve has over 20 caps with the Under-21 squad. He has had two games for the French national side, one where he came on as a substitute for Sebastien Frey while the second was a friendly against Sweden last week.

Mandanda had a great game against Sweden and has reason to believe that he will be chosen over Hugo Lloris considering that the two are the only keepers named by Domenech for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers against Austria and Serbia. Sebastien Frey has retired while Domenech is looking to a younger option as compared to Gregory Coupet. Mandanda has had one shot at the spot while another two seemed to be lined up in quick succession.

Raymond Domenech has, however, made the point that the space is still up for grabs. Although Steve Mandanda did have a good outing, Domenech still believes that there is a long way to go for the 23-year old to make something happen out of this. Domenech firmly believes that his goalkeepers do not have a clear hierarchy anymore. There is no sure-shot number one goalkeeper and this, he says, can work in both ways. Mandanda needs to be more consistent in the shots that he gets over the next few matches.

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