Jean Butez's Dream Call-Up to France National Team
Jean Butez stepped off a plane with his Como team-mates and straight into a dream.
By the time his phone lit up on landing, the 31‑year‑old goalkeeper had gone from anonymous Serie A grafter to the newest name on Zinedine Zidane’s France team sheet. A first call-up at 31 years and three months. A career suddenly rewritten in one message.
His selection came late and unexpectedly, triggered by the withdrawal of RC Lens goalkeeper Robin Risser after medical consultations between club and national-team staff. One player’s misfortune opened the door for another. Butez didn’t hide that mix of emotions.
“We were coming back from an away game with Lucas in particular. The message on landing was nice,” he said after arriving at CNF Clairefontaine, still processing the news. He spared a thought for Risser, then allowed himself a smile at the statistic that followed: “I saw that stat, it’s pretty cool that I’m the one who broke that record. But you’re never too old for your first selection. Obviously, I wasn’t expecting it.”
Oldest since 1976. That is the scale of his late surge. Not since Gerard Farison, almost half a century ago, have Les Bleus handed a debut call-up to someone this seasoned.
A long road to Clairefontaine
Nothing about Butez’s path has been glamorous. Lille, Mouscron, Royal Antwerp, and now Como: a goalkeeper who built his reputation far from the Paris spotlight, brick by brick, clean sheet by clean sheet.
His defining season came at Royal Antwerp in 2023, when he anchored a historic domestic treble and racked up 27 clean sheets. That body of work, the years of consistency, now carry him into a France squad stacked with elite talent.
At Clairefontaine, his first training session with Les Bleus came under the eye of a man who knows the position better than most: newly appointed goalkeeping coach Fabien Barthez. For a late-blooming keeper, it is quite an introduction to international football.
“Now, I’m here to replace him and discover a bit of this world, this group,” Butez said, still sounding slightly dazed but absolutely clear on how he feels about it. “And I’m the happiest.”
Zidane’s intensive Nations League test
This is no gentle initiation. France head into a packed UEFA Nations League window: four matches in eleven days, against Turkey, Italy and a double-header with Belgium. It is the kind of schedule that tests every department of a squad, goalkeepers included.
Butez arrives as depth, competition, and insurance for Zidane in a compressed run where one injury or suspension can flip the hierarchy in an instant. For now, he is the understudy, the newcomer soaking in the environment and learning the rhythms of international football.
But a late call-up at 31 has already shown how quickly things can change.
Les Bleus, refreshed under Zidane and backed by a demanding Nations League calendar, will chase strong early results. Somewhere behind the established names, a goalkeeper who thought this chance had probably passed him by is suddenly in the thick of it, gloves on, waiting for the next message that changes everything again.
