The New French Defense: Raphaël Varane and Kurt Zouma

After the emergence of Raphaël Varane onto the world stage as a prodigy of a central defender with lightning pace, effortless technical skill, and strong defensive instincts and fundamentals, there was a question about whom would partner Varane in the center of the French defense.

Kurt Zouma is the answer to that question. Zouma is a monster of a central defender not only in his physique and athleticism, but also in his technical skill and ability as a man-marker and tackler.

Zouma has also proved to be a big threat offensively on set pieces. Let’s see what else the central defender (and defensive midfielder) shows in the attack.

The French National Team released some videos of Varane and Zouma juggling (along with Paul Pogba) and frankly they were scary good.

While most professional players playing for top clubs all display impressive technical skill as a given, the type of juggling that Zouma and Varane were doing looked worthy of a Ronaldinho or Neymar freestyle performance.

Even right now, the Zouma and Varane pairing has to be considered arguably the best center back pairing on the international level – and maybe the club level as well. It’s hard to think of a better pairing, especially since Brazil has been changing up their center backs and snubbing Thiago Silva (the best defender in the world).

Why is Zouma and Varane the best center back pairing in the world? Because Varane was already considered one of the top three or five center backs in the world, and now Zouma has been a standout for Chelsea. So what you have now is central defenders that are considered prodigies and both of them are very hard to beat for pace. They are also very comfortable with the ball at their feet.

With UEFA Euro 2016 coming up next year and the 2018 World Cup a few years away, it’s hard to see a better center back pairing in all of world football. Those two young defenders could be France’s central defense for the next decade.

The Zouma and Varane pairing should come to be considered the most formidable in soccer, and after France made a deep World Cup run in 2014, maybe France is an early favorite for the 2018 World Cup.