Gael Clichy, the former France international who once defended the heart of Arsenal and Manchester City, believes Michael Olise could be the breakout star France needs at the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Olise's trajectory has been remarkably swift. The Bayern Munich winger plays at the highest level of club football—visible week after week in the Champions League—yet remains largely unknown beyond the hardcore football enthusiast. He has only 16 caps for France and is making his first appearance at a World Cup. Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, when Olise had just transferred from Crystal Palace to Germany, many French fans barely knew his name. That unfamiliarity makes Clichy's confidence all the more striking.
Clichy worked closely with Olise during the Paris Olympics, serving as assistant coach alongside Thierry Henry for the French under-23 team. The squad reached the final, nearly claiming gold—a glimpse of Olise's potential on a major stage. But a World Cup, Clichy notes, is something altogether different. "I am the player I am most looking forward to seeing play game after game at this level," Clichy says of Olise, "and showing everyone exactly what he can do."
What makes Olise's development particularly interesting is how it mirrors another French talent's journey—though Clichy uses Rayan Aïd (a Manchester City player) as the primary case study in his reflection. Young players who dominate from childhood sometimes struggle with the defensive and transitional phases of football, eventually needing to mature into complete players. Olise faced similar challenges: he could be brilliant in possession but inconsistent without the ball. Yet Clichy sees genuine progress. At Bayern Munich, under Julian Nagelsmann and now under successor Vincent Kompany, Olise has begun addressing those gaps. The refinement of his all-around game—work in and out of possession, attacking and defensive transitions, set-piece positioning—is what separates elite talents from superstars.
Clichy draws a parallel to his own experience. He was 32 when he joined Pep Guardiola at Manchester City in 2016 and found himself learning the finer points of defending and positioning all over again. For Olise, still in his early twenties, the exposure to elite coaching and training methods at Bayern Munich is invaluable. Every season of consistent improvement at that level compounds the likelihood of breakthrough moments.
The World Cup, historically, has been where French players announce themselves to the world. Kylian Mbappé's emergence at the 2018 World Cup in Russia proved the point: everyone knew he was talented, but that tournament was when he truly arrived as a superstar. Clichy envisions something similar for Olise. This will be his first World Cup with the senior squad, his first real chance to display his abilities across multiple matches against the world's best defenders on football's grandest stage.
The setup is there. Bayern Munich provides the platform; Olise's natural gifts—his dribbling, his vision, his technical ability—are undeniable. What Clichy will be watching for, commenting for BBC Sport, is whether Olise's maturation process has advanced far enough to make him a complete threat. If it has, France will have found another winger to build around, and Olise will have announced himself to the world.