International Career
Valbuena did not receive any call-ups to any of the France national youth football teams. However, following his impressive performances with Marseille, he was awarded a call up to the senior team by coach Raymond Domenech for the team's matches against England and Mali in March 2008. However, he picked up an injury and was forced to miss out.
Valbuena's next call-up was over two years later in May 2010, when he was named to the 30-man preliminary list by Domenech to play in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Valbuena's call up was considered surprising by the media and the player himself, despite Valbuena playing well with his parent club who won the league and league cup double in the 2009–10 season. Many journalists in the French media compared Valbuena's call-up to the team with Franck Ribéry's call-up four years previously, as the two players share similarities in playing style and their circumstances at the time of their respective call-ups. Valbuena was later named to the 23-man team to compete in the competition. He made his national team debut on 26 May 2010 in a friendly match against Costa Rica appearing as a substitute in the second half. After 16 minutes on the field, Valbuena scored the game-winning goal in the team's 2–1 victory. At the World Cup, Valbuena made his debut in the competition in the team's 2–0 loss to Mexico appearing as a substitute on 17 June. It was his only appearance in the competition. During the competition, the players went on strike in protest over the expulsion of striker Nicolas Anelka from the team, which resulted in all 23 players on the team being suspended for its friendly match in August 2010.
After missing the match against Norway due to new manager Laurent Blanc's imposed suspension, Valbuena made his return to the team in a 1–0 defeat to Belarus in UEFA Euro 2012 qualification. The midfielder subsequently appeared in every match under Blanc in 2010, excluding the match against Bosnia and Herzegovina in September 2010. Valbuena capped his return to the national team by scoring against England in a friendly at Wembley Stadium on 17 November 2010.
Read more about this topic: Mathieu Valbuena
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