Euro 2025 gets underway this week but one of the biggest names in women’s football will not feature at the tournament, as France captain Wendie Renard was left out of the squad heading to Switzerland.
France head coach, Laurent Bonadei, made the decision to drop two of France’s most experienced players ahead of Euro 2025 with Wendie Renard and Eugenie Le Sommer both dropped from the squad.
Wendie Renard omitted from France squad
With 168 caps for her country, Wendie Renard is one of the most experienced players in women’s football and it was a shock when she was omitted from the France squad this year.
Renard was previously left out of Bonadei’s squad for the Nations League early in the year but she was still expected to make the Euro 2025 squad along with France top goalscorer Le Sommer.
Two veterans are missing from France’s @WEURO2025 squad 😳
Captain Wendie Renard and all-time leading scorer Eugénie Le Sommer have been left out 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/CK5O0GPiHB
— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) June 5, 2025
Le Sommer netted 94 goals in 200 appearances for France but was another to be left out despite her vast experience.
When explaining why the duo were left out of the 23-man squad for Switzerland, Bonadei said: “These are tough choices. They are difficult to make and difficult to announce to the players. It’s a decision that’s hard to hear, hard to understand and almost impossible for them to accept because they’re legendary players for the French team.
“I didn’t make this decision on the spur of the moment. You’d think, given the timing, that this is crazy but it’s not. As Einstein said: ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.’ I want different results for this team so I have gone with a different selection.”
France haven’t had much success in international competitions under Bonadei and after early eliminations from Euro 2022 and the World Cup in 2023 they will be hopeful for a better run this summer in Switzerland.
Despite their disappointing form in major competitions, when Le Sommer and Renard were dropped from the Nations League squad this year France did look like a different kind of force.
France won all six of their group stage games and as a result earned a spot in the semi-finals against Germany.
France Euro 2025 odds
After an encouraging Nations League campaign France come into Euro 2025 with much more hope, and the best UK football betting sites price them at 5/1 to win the tournament.
Despite their good odds, France may face one of their stiffest tests in a major competition as they are drawn in Group D which is also the ‘group of death’ this year.
France will face reigning champions England in their first game and after that things don’t get much easier with ties against the Netherlands and Wales.
