France, the No. 3 behind Argentina and Spain in the FIFA Rankings, has been a top-gun football nation for the last three decades. It etched its class and calibre winning the home FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1998 drubbing Brazil 3-0 in the final.

The 'Les Bleus' were in deadly form in the course of a seven-match unbeaten run (winning six, accepting a goalless draw against Italy) and achieve its maiden title.

The team, then had the likes of classic performers in Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane, all of who figured in the goal-getter's list. But there was another name which is quite familiar to the present day fans-and that's Didier Deschamps who, as coach, masterminded France's World Cup triumph at Russia 2018 and also took it to the final at Qatar 2022.

He wore the captain's arm band and he had superb players like Fabien Barthez (87 caps from 1998 to 2006) under the bar and Zidane who scored the first and second goals of the 1998 final. Thuram had shot at the goal twice - both successful- in the semi-final against Croatia.

It took two decades for France to win its second title in Russia (2018) and the little known, but rip-roaring Kylian Mbappe won the FIFA Young Player Award; the budding talent had scored the fourth goal in France's 4-2 win over Croatia.

Mbappe, the lightning kid, scored a hat-trick in the final against Argentina at Qatar 2022, including two penalty shots (first in the 80th minute when Argentina was up 2-0 and the third in the shoot out).

Mbappe finished with a tally of eight, the highest in Qatar for an overall 12 in two World Cups. Lionel Messi has 13 and Christiano Ronaldo has 15 and the three have the opportunity to bring down Germany's Miroslav Klose's World Cup record goals of 16 in four World Cup finals.

In as much as a football crazy thinks highly of Messi and Ronaldo, both of whom the FIFA party in the Americas will most likely be the last, there are the new breed of strikers and the leader of that pack has to be Mbappe who amazingly has been flaunting his talent for nine years and more, and is only 27 years of age.

France is, man for man, the most accomplished team, equipped to deal with different challenging situations in a match, but the electrifying Mbappe is the fulcrum and the team's direction in a match will emanate from him. Without a doubt. France's third back to back attempt at the title will hinge on the success of its captain who has played 94 times for the 'Les Bleus' and has got 55 goals.

In the four team group UEAF World Cup qualifiers, Mbappe scored five times in four matches and he was tenth in the leader board on top of which was Norway's Erling Haaland with 16 goals. France beat Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Iceland which held the Champion to a 2-2 draw in the home match.

France beat Brazil, Colombia and Northern Ireland in the last three months, but lost to Ivory Coast 1-2. It was a match in which Mbappe was substituted at half time along with four more players. France boasts of some terrific players in the front like Desire Doue, Michael Olise who scored 15 goals and assisted in 19 for Bayern Munich this season, and Ousmane Dembele. Mbappe will be the linchpin in the 4-2-3-1 formation that Deschamps will start with.

The 57-year-old Deschamps will put up a show for the last time from the dug out. He has been with the team for 12 years across a number of tournaments. In 179 matches, Deschamps who has coached teams like Monaco, Juventus and Marseille has seen France win 115 matches, draw 35 and drop 29.

Deschamps doesn't want to comment on his likely successor (Zidane). He has gone on record saying that eight to ten teams have it in them to win the title in New Jersey and that his only aim is to take his side as far as possible.

The focus will be on Mbappe who had a knee issue to deal with some months ago, but he appears to have fully recovered. France will take on Senegal, Iraq and Norway in the first round matches.

The opening match could turn out to be trucky; it has lost to Senegal, has not played Iraq and its record again Norway is 15 played, 7 won and 4 each drawn and lost.

France will start its campaign as a contender with the combination of Deschamps and Mbappe and the old and young stars.