Pagis joins the French national beach-soccer team!
Reaching the end of his contract with Rennes, Mickaël Pagis has been called up to the French national beach-soccer team for an international tournament played next week-end in Marseille. He joined Eric Cantona’s squad for the summer, before possibly becoming a full time member of the team.
The professional situation of Mickaël Pagis, who will be free of his contract in a couple of days, he still not clarified. In discussions since several month with the Rennes management to join the club’s coaching staff, it seems that the man from Angers has found a new challenge.
Indeed Pagis will appear theis week-end as a player of the French team, in an international beach-soccer competition. The former Rennes striker answered positively to Eric Cantona’s call.
A few months ago, «The King » expressed his admiration for Pagis, stating he would have deserved to wear the French national jersey in his career: "There’s one player I would have liked to see in the French squad, it’s Mickaël Pagis. Because in these team, many guys can play wide while he is able to play as a target man, bring the ball back to the center. In other words, he is a very intelligent player. To me, if he was surrounded by great players, he would be even better than he is today. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, I like that kind of striker very much, and if I was the national coach, I would pick him. But I’m no national coach and I don’t think for the national coach.”
Pagis’ first cap
Often compared, the two men will work together through the beach-soccer Euro-League, which will be played on Marseille’s beach from this Friday. Whatever happens, this selection will allow Pagis to wear the French national jersey for the first time in his career.
In an interview to So Foot, Pagis recognized that "it had been a few years he had been thinking"about getting into beach soccer for various reasons: "This is what I love in football: Technical skills, precise attacking. Even though it’s different here, you need a different sort of balance. Joël Cantona told me it would take me 5 or 6 games to be on top of my skills. He is right, I need to work on my mobility and moves”.
Nearly 37 years old, he isn’t certain to give a positive reply to the proposition of joining Frederic Antonetti’s staff from the 2010-2011 season: "I give myself until the month of August to go on with this team. My situation in Rennes was quite hard to bear with, I really needed to have a break from football. Then, I’ll consider things”.