Young Thuram emerges as a possible new man for France against Finland

France boss Didier Deschamps won a World Cup and a European championship alongside the father and on Wednesday could hand a first cap to the son in the friendly against Finland.

Marcus Thuram is expected to line up on the left when an experimental France team take on the Scandinavians at the Stade de France.

Thuram, 23, is the eldest son of Lillian Thuram who graced the France team in defence between 1996 and 2008.

“He is a relaxed person,” said Deschamps of the Borussia Moenchengladbach forward. “He likes expectation and pressure.

“To be 'the son of' is not one of my reasons for bringing someone in,” added Deschamps. “If he is in the squad it is because he deserves to be in the group.”

Thuram has scored 17 times in 50 appearances since joining Monchengladbach in July 2019 from EA Guingamp.

Call-up
He was called up to the France senior squad after strikers Kylian Mbappé and Corentin Tolisso pulled out due to injury. Deschamps has also been deprived of Adrien Rabiot, Benjamin Pavard and Lucas Hernandez.

However, World Cup winners Paul Pogba and Steven Nzonzi are likely to add the midfield muscle behind frontman Olivier Giroud.

Finland go into the game after home and away victories over the Republic of Ireland in the Nations League. They play in Bulgaria on 15 November and in Wales three days later.

Progress
Victories in both matches will allow them to claim League B Group 4 and confirm the progress which enabled them to qualify for their first major international tournament at Euro 2020.

"We weren't the favourites to reach Euro 2020 from our group because Italy was the favourite," said Finland coach Markku Kanerva. “Then it was Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece as well ... they were the main candidates to qualify. And we managed to surprise them.”

Even with the list of illustrious absentees, France are expected to beat a side who are 55th in the Fifa rankings as they prepare for Saturday's League A Group 3 showdown in Lisbon against Portugal who lead the pool on goal difference ahead of France.

“When I look at the choices of the France coach, he's got virtually two teams of high quality players,” added Kanerva. “There's hardly any difference between the A and B teams.”