France is a nation that has produced some of the best Soccer players in the world for decades now. Players like Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry, and Patrick Viera are just a few names on a long list of world-class players. France's production of high caliber talent has not slowed down over the years either as they have produced current world-class talents such as Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba.

Evidence of France's production quality lies in the absence of several big-name players from the 23-man World Cup squad. In particular, the absence of Arsenal forward Alexandre Lacazette and Manchester United winger Anthony Martial has surprised many soccer fans around the world.

With the World Cup less than a month away, France will be eyeing a chance to avenge their loss as hosts in the final of Euro 2016 to Portugal.

The squad

Goalkeepers: Steve Mandanda, Hugo Lloris, Alphonse Areola

Defenders: Lucas Hernandez, Presnel Kimpembe, Benjamin Pavard, Benjamin Mendy, Djibril Sidibe, Adil Rami, Samuel Umtiti, Raphael Varane

Midfielders: Blaise Matuidi, N’Golo Kante, Steven N’Zonzi, Paul Pogba, Corentin Tolisso

Forwards: Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar, Nabil Fekir, Florian Thauvin, Ousmane Dembele

The biggest snubs

(All statistics according to whoscored.com)

Alexandre Lacazette: The Frenchman made the jump to the Premier League last summer for £46.5 million, which at the time was a club record transfer fee for Arsenal.

Lacazette made a strong start to the 17/18 campaign, finding the back of the net four times in his first six Premier League appearances for the gunners, and went on to score a total of 14 league goals in 26 starts.

Anthony Martial: Martial looks to be on his way out the door in Manchester, as he spent his second season under Jose Mourinho making a lot of appearances off the bench.

12 of Martial's 30 league appearances came as a substitute, and of these 12 substitution appearances, Martial played 20 minutes or less.

To his credit, Martial did manage to create nine goals and five assists in the Premier League in just over 1500 total minutes. By comparison, Jesse Lingard produced eight goals and five assists in 1800 minutes and Marcus Rashford netted seven times and produced five assists in 1800 minutes also.

Dimitri Payet: This snub isn't actually a snub at all. Payet would have been playing in Russia next month had it not been for a hamstring injury, which knocked him out of Marseille's Europa League Final loss to Atletico Madrid. Payet, one of Marseille's most important players, was very impressive this season after moving back to Marseille from West Ham.

Payet found the back of the net nine times in all competitions, and also had 20 assists. His 13 Ligue 1 assists tied him with Lyon's Memphis Depay and PSG's Neymar for the most assists in the league. Soccer fans worldwide will have to wait until Euro 2020 to possibly see Payet suit up for France in a major tournament again.

When asked why Anthony Martial and Alexandre Lacazette were left out of the squad, manager Didier Deschamps replied: "They were good against Germany, but that was only one match" (according to a report by Bleacherreport).
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