The Stade Rennais striker leads Ligue 1 in goals, but faces an uphill battle to make the France squad this summer.
France starts the World Cup in just over a month. Les Bleus will do so without Liverpool star Hugo Ekitiké, who suffered a season-ending injury against PSG. France will not have the best version of Kylian Mbappé, who has battled with injuries and occasionally teammates in Madrid. Unlike Didier Deschamps’ teams of the past, there is no Antoine Griezmann or Olivier Giroud to call on. Still, oddly enough, it looks likely there is no Estéban Lepaul, either.
Make no mistakes: France has an absolutely loaded attack. Even though he is not at his best, Mbappé is a fantastic player. Ousmane Dembélé won the Ballon d’Or for a reason, and could win the Champions League once again. Michael Olise is one of the best players in the world. Rayan Cherki has really heated up with Manchester City. This team is not lacking in options.
Next to those names, Lepaul, a 26-year-old Stade Rennais striker, might seem like a nobody. Certainly, few outside of France will have heard of him. They would be surprised to discover, then, that it is Lepaul, and not Dembélé nor Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, or any of Ligue 1’s other stars, who leads the league with 20 goals.
Lepaul, dubbed “the French Vardy,” has enjoyed a rapid rise. In 2020, he was in the National 2, France’s fourth tier, with SAS Épinal. He did not even make it to Ligue 2, the second tier, until 2024, when he joined Angers SCO. In his initial half-season with Angers, he didn’t make much of an impact, starting just six games and scoring three goals.
The next season, with Angers in Ligue 1, was his breakout year. Lepaul had to wait until November for his first goal, but it was a beauty: a volley from the edge of the area that swerved past Gianluigi Donnarumma into the top right corner. Angers, unsurprisingly, lost 4-2 to PSG, but it marked the start of Lepaul’s Ligue 1 success.
In January, Lepaul bagged four goals in three games to pull Angers away from the bottom of Ligue 1. By the end of the season, he scored nine goals and had become a key player for Alexandre Dujeux’s side. Angers avoided relegation by only six points, with Lepaul scoring 28% of the club’s goals. Simply put, they would not have been in Ligue 1 this season without his performances.
Unsurprisingly, other clubs took notice. Stade Rennais, a club known for launching the careers of some of the best players in the world, needed a replacement for Nottingham-bound Arnaud Kalimuendo (now at Frankfurt) after a 12th-place finish. The Ligue 1 side convinced Angers to sell their new star for €15 million, according to L’Equipe, and signed Lepaul to a four-year contract in the summer. A big risk for such an inexperienced player, but with potentially a big reward.
Stade Rennais have certainly won big from this signing. Lepaul’s first game for Les Rouge et Noirs was, fittingly, against Angers. He found the back of the net after just 21 minutes. It marked a solid start to the campaign, and he scored eight goals in his first 16 games with Stade Rennais. Still, he really found a new level in 2026.
Lepaul started a remarkable run of form in February with a goal against title challengers RC Lens in a 3-1 loss. One week later, his side took on PSG in the first match since manager Habib Beye was sacked. Stade Rennais won 3-1, with Lepaul scoring the eventual winner and hitting the post. He’s up to eleven goals in his last 13 games, and two assists.
That takes Lepaul up to 20 goals this season. Compare that to his competition at the number nine spot in France’s squad. Mbappé is always an outlier, and this season, he has 24 goals in La Liga. Dembélé has just ten in Ligue 1, but has been limited by injuries and rotation as PSG chase back-to-back Champions League titles. Ekitiké has eleven in the Premier League, but is out of contention with an injury. Great form has Marcus Thuram at 13 in Serie A after a poor start.
Then there’s Randal Kolo Muani. The forward seems to have an eternal spot in Deschamps’ squad, no matter his struggles. He has one solitary goal in the Premier League this season as of writing. His best season, in terms of goal scoring, was when he scored fifteen with Eintracht Frankfurt, earning a spot in the 2022 World Cup. That’s five worse than Lepaul’s current tally, and Stade Rennais still have one game left.
Now, there are other factors to consider beyond goal-scoring. Defensively, Lepaul is significantly less involved than many other options, which makes him less valuable out of possession. Versatility is a factor, and Lepaul can only really play centrally. He’s also not the most physically intimidating option at 5’10”. Compared to Marcus Thuram, who is half a foot taller and nearly 40 pounds heavier, he’s not likely to come off the bench and bruise a defense in the same way.
That’s not where his strengths lie, though. Lepaul is technically gifted and a fantastic finisher, and he makes great runs and gets in great positions. He is also capable of winning the odd header, as he showed against PSG. In a team with chance creators like Michael Olise, Lepaul could really thrive as a killer off the bench.
Perhaps the two strongest cases against selecting Lepaul aren’t his fault. Worse, there’s nothing he can do to change them.
First, he hasn’t played with France and its stars before. With so few games played internationally, familiarity between players is crucial. Given that Lepaul has never played for France or its youth teams, and has played with no other members of the squad — except Cherki, his former Lyon academy teammate — removing a regular for an unknown makes little sense, especially for just a squad or bench role.
The second is that he hasn’t really played on the biggest stage before. While Ligue 1 is certainly not an easy league, it helps when players have experienced the pressure of a tournament like the Champions League or Euros. Better players than Lepaul have struggled under the bright lights of the world’s biggest tournament, and France does have more experienced options.
That’s not to say it can’t work out for inexperienced players. Randal Kolo Muani had played just ten minutes for Les Bleus when he was selected for the World Cup in Qatar. He changed the tournament, sending France to the final with his goal against Morocco, and playing a key role against Argentina, although he’s now best known for Emiliano Martínez’s remarkable save. Yet, heading into that tournament, Kolo Muani wasn’t a household name.
Despite strong performances, it’s hard to see a scenario where Didier Deschamps takes the risk and selects Lepaul for his squad this summer. Lepaul remains underappreciated, both inside and outside of France: he was passed up for Ligue 1’s major award nominations this season, despite his goals.
Lepaul has scored more than a third of Stade Rennais’ Ligue 1 goals this season as the club are just two points off Champions League qualification. Big clubs are reportedly circling. He looks likely to be recognized eventually, whether Deschamps sees his ability now or not. Still, it’d be beneficial for Les Bleus to have the Stade Rennais man on the bench come June.
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Image via ligue1.com.
