M’Vila on tour, Montaño on standby

With most of Rennes’ squad now in holidays for four weeks, some of Frédéric Antonetti’s players will finish the season with their national squad. Although internationals are numerous in the squad, only four will have to delay their holidays this time.
These four will naturally be offered a rest-period nearly identical to what is given to their team-mates. Instead of starting on June 27th, they will be expected at La Piverdière on July 4th, according to Le Télégramme.

Six full internationals will be rested this time, for various seasons. Some have been forced to forfeit for these games. This is the case of Alexander Tettey, called-up with Norway and forced to decline the invitation, still recovering from the injury that kept him out of Stade Rennes’ final games of the season.
Georges Mandjeck, usually called with the « undomitable Lions » from Cameroon, hasn’t been called by his national coach, Javier Clemente, although he had never been left out of the squad since the 2010 World Cup. The Rennais is probably paying for his reduced playing time in Rennes, but also for the return of Arsenal’s defensive midfielder Alexandre Song, who hadn’t been called so far in 2011.
John Boye, one of the very good surprises of Rennes’ second half of the season, hasn’t been called either with Ghana, where he faces strong competition and only appears episodically. As for Razak Boukari, the reason he is in holidays as soon as today is that Togo hasn’t planned a game for this period. Finally, and more surprisingly, Yassine Jebbour wasn’t called with Morroco’s Olympic team, despite managing to gain more playing time with Rennes at the end of the season.

Most of the Rennes players called for international games are actually called with the France national teams. The only exception is Kader Mangane, who will play a crucially important game in Cameroon, as part of the qualifiers for the 2012 African Cup of Nations. If they were to win, the “Teranga Lions” would be nearly assured to play in the competition’s final tournament. As for the Cameroonese, they will play for their survival in this qualification round, in order to try and reach – at least – one of the places as best second placed team, which would allow them to qualify.

Closer to Rennes, Yann M’Vila spent the beginning of the week in Clairefontaine, to prepare a mini-tour of Eastern Europe with France, and in particular the Euro 2012 qualification game against Belarus in Minsk. Should they win, “Les Bleus” would make a big step towards the finals. After this game, two friendlies will follow closely against the two organising countries for the Euro 2014: Ukraine first, then Poland.
On the U21’s side, two friendly games are on the menu for Yacine Brahimi and Vincent Pajot. The first game will oppose Érick Mombaerts’ to Serbia, this Thursday in Rouen, before a second test in Ukraine next Sunday. Unless another friendly was to be scheduled before August, these two games would be the last run before the qualifications for Euro 2013 begin, in which the “Bleuets” will face Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Kazakhstan.

Finally, some uncertainty remains regarding Victor Hugo Montaño. The Colombian hopes to take part in the Copa América with his country, but will only know if he comes to do so next Tuesday, when national coach Hernán Darío Gómez is expected to publish his squad for the competition.
If he was to be included in the list, the Rennes striker would see his preparation for the 2011-2012 completely shaken-up. Indeed, meeting on June 12th, the Colombian squad will play its group phase games between July 2nd and 10th. If they were to qualify for the final play-offs, Colombia would remain in Argentina for additional one or two weeks. In other words, if he is selected, Montaño could possibly remain in international duty only four days before Stade Rennais play their first game in the Europa League.

Schedule

- Thursday, June 2nd :
France U21 – Serbia U21 (friendly), 20:45 CET in Rouen

- Friday, June 3rd:
Belarus - France (Euro 2012 qual.), 20:45 CET in Minsk

- Saturday, June 4th :
Cameroon - Senegal (CAN 2012 qual.) in Yaoundé

- Sunday, June 5th :
Ukraine U21- France U21 (friendly), in Kiev

- Monday, June 6th :
Ukraine - France (friendly), 21:00 CET in Donetsk

- Tuesday, June 7th :
Publication of the Colombian squad for the Copa América

- Thursday, June 9th :
Poland - France (friendly), 21:00 CET in Warsaw

- Photo : srfc.frenchwill.fr