Adrien Rabiot’s path to becoming Didier Deschamps’ midfield backbone has been anything but smooth. From clashes with coaches and clubs to illness sidelining him for the Morocco match, he’s now supplying the balance France needs—pushing Kylian Mbappé’s attack f
On days when the spotlight falls on Kylian Mbappé, Adrien Rabiot is the player who keeps the stage steady without ever asking to step into the glow.
France’s midfield enforcer is again drawing the kind of attention that doesn’t feel like praise. His name has long travelled with questions—about temperament. about dependability. about the way he irritates coaches. clubs. and team-mates as much as opponents. Yet when Didier Deschamps needed a foundation for a serious run. Rabiot has kept showing up with the work that doesn’t always make highlights but keeps teams functioning.
It started, for the tournament at least, with a moment that demanded everyone look his way. Rabiot produced a stunning assist in France’s 3-1 win over Senegal to start the World Cup.
His critics often talk about what he lacks. Those closer to the story point to what he has survived—and the career detours that shaped him into the player Deschamps leans on. Rabiot has come a long way from emailing Didier Deschamps eight years ago to say he would not accept a place on the standby list for the 2018 World Cup. when Les Bleus went on to reach glory.
Not long after that stance, he was jettisoned by Paris Saint-Germain after a dispute in which his mother and agent, Veronique, was infamously prominent.
From there, the story turns toward football as much as it does conflict. Rabiot began to grow at Juventus. with Andrea Pirlo—who served as head coach of the Old Lady for a spell—declaring him a “complete” midfielder able to combine the technical and physical side of the game. It was high praise from one of the great purveyors of the former. coming to a player whose reputation had often leaned toward the latter.
Over time, Rabiot clawed his way back into the national team picture. By Qatar, he was a crucial cog on the path to France’s greatest World Cup final of all. He still wasn’t present for the last-four win against Morocco, though—he missed it owing to illness.
That absence didn’t end the debate about him. It just added another chapter to a career that is constantly being re-litigated. Now. he’s one of Deschamps’ key lieutenants. one of the cleanest operators carrying out the dirty work. and—at least inside this France squad—far more appreciated by his present team-mates than many of those who have gone before.
Former Marseille colleague Jonathan Rowe is one of the names tied to the messier parts of his past. Their changing-room scrap led to both players being sold last year, a reminder that Rabiot’s volatility has never stayed neatly on the pitch.
And yet it’s Kylian Mbappé who framed Rabiot in the simplest terms before the tournament got underway.
“A guy with incredible resilience,” Mbappé said of Rabiot. “No matter what gets said about him, what happens to him, the guy’s always there. He’s weathered storms and gales and, when you look at his career, his CV speaks for itself.”
There is a detail that underlines how far Rabiot has come, and how deeply the team’s thinking has shifted around him. Rabiot was not in the squad when Mbappé led France to the World Cup in 2018.
Now. if Mbappé is to win his second World Cup. the leading star understands what the tournament demands from the players two rows behind him. Deschamps isn’t just asking Rabiot to cover space. He’s asking him to keep control while the match grows chaotic—especially as France lean into a luxurious attack.
Maybe not against Iraq in Philadelphia on Monday night, the power of that balance may not feel obvious right away. But from the group closer against Norway on Friday and into the knockout stages, it should become clearer that this France has more than a front four.
For all the criticism of Deschamps’ vague philosophy, he has always treated balance as a central tenet of his gameplans. So by committing to such an attacking style, the emphasis on Rabiot and Aurelien Tchouameni to bring control behind the chaos becomes even more intense.
Rabiot said it himself before the tournament began. “With Aurelien, we need to maintain this balance,” he said. “We’re not restricted by the coach but, in this setup, we need to find the right adjustments with the four key attacking players who can make the difference.”
The early signs are hard to ignore. Rabiot’s pass to Bradley Barcola for France’s second against Senegal was described here as exquisite. one of the assists of the tournament to date. And he also pushed through the standard pile of unseen work against an opponent whose mobility would upset plenty of teams.
There’s an elegance to him that has often been overlooked. especially because so much attention has been spent treating him as a workhorse rather than a footballer with a technical identity. Part of that misreading may come from how his team is built. When a squad includes gifted forwards who have been fairly criticised for an unrivalled lack of work ethic off the ball. the burden has to be shared.
In that kind of setup, the rest of the team has to compensate—running, battling, and covering. Deschamps can, with Rabiot, place unwavering faith to keep running, keep battling, and keep trying, even if his inclusion remains destined to be questioned by the outside world.
France are still chasing an unprecedented third straight final, and they’re chasing it with a midfield spine that refuses to stay uncomplicated. Mbappé can score and celebrate, but Rabiot is the one making sure the balance doesn’t break when the game demands more than flash.
Adrien Rabiot Kylian Mbappe Didier Deschamps France World Cup Senegal Norway Iraq Bradley Barcola Aurelien Tchouameni