No doubt, all 23 players who were included into the France squad, deserved to win the World Cup. But there are other players with the French passport, who would probably deserve to be crowned world champions, but for various reasons were not in Russia.

Laurent Koscielny

The World Cup was expected to become a swan song for the 32-year-old, who announced his international retirement after the tournament a few months ago. However, the Arsenal central defender did not have a chance to play in Russia. In the Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid in early May, Koscielny suffered an achilles injury and was stretchered off, and it was clear that he would miss the World Cup.

Dimitri Payet

At Euro 2016, the winger was one of the key figures in the French team. After that, Payet returned from West Ham to Marseille, and although his performances in Ligue 1 did not always live up to expectations, Dimitri was the team’s best player in the Europa League. Yet notably in the final match against Atletico Madrid - again Atletico! -  Payet got a thgh injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.

Karim Benzema

He was not injured, and he is one of the best present-day French strikers - so no doubt, he could make the squad for the World Cup under other circumstances. But Benzema’s career at Les Bleus was probably over in 2015. We all remember why: Karim allegedly took part in a blackmailing plot against his teammate Mathieu Valbuena. The latter is also no longer in the French team, but at almost 34, he is already past his prime. As for Benzema, Didier Deschamps once decided that such personalities can not belong to him team - and he never changed his decision.

Franck Ribery

Like Valbuena, he is definitely past his prime at the age of 35 - but Bayern Munich, one of the strongest clubs of the world, still need him. Ribery is an injury-prone player, but if he was fit, he would probably do something good for Les Bleus, at least as a substitute. Ribery is one of the best French footballers in the XXI century, and he deserves to be crowned as world champion. However, Franck retired from the national team in 2014 and focused on Bayern - so he was not even a candidate for Deschamps now. 

Anthony Martial

Normally the Manchester United player was expected to make the World Cup squad, but he did not impress at his club in the spring, so Deschamps preferred to take players with better recent records, such as Nabil Fekir or Florian Thauvin. Of course Martial is disappointed to have missed out on the world title, but he is still one of the most talented young French players, so probably he will have a chance to win some big trophy with Les Bleus in future.