Jean Butez: Oldest New Face in France Squad

Jean Butez was still on the plane when his life changed.

The Como goalkeeper, 31 years and three months old, landed from an away trip alongside team‑mate Lucas Da Cunha and switched his phone back on. One message stood out. By the time he stepped off the aircraft, he had become the most unexpected new face in Zinedine Zidane’s France squad.

A first call-up at 31. And a record broken.

Oldest debutant in nearly 50 years

Butez’s late inclusion came after RC Lens keeper Robin Risser withdrew from the squad due to physical problems, confirmed after consultations between the medical teams. Zidane turned to experience, and found it in Lombardy.

With that decision, Butez became the oldest player to receive a maiden France call-up since Gerard Farison in 1976. Almost half a century on, the door has opened again for a latecomer.

The man from Como did not hide how surreal it felt.

“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. “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.”

He made sure to spare a thought for the man he replaces, too. Butez expressed sympathy for the injured Risser, conscious that his own joy followed another goalkeeper’s setback.

From Antwerp treble to Clairefontaine

This is not a fairy tale plucked from nowhere. Butez’s path has been long, hard, and quietly impressive.

Formed at Lille, tested at Mouscron, then elevated at Royal Antwerp, he built a reputation far from the glare of Clairefontaine. In Belgium, he became a cornerstone of Antwerp’s stunning 2023 campaign, helping the club to a domestic treble and racking up 27 clean sheets in the process. Those numbers travel. So do performances in pressure games.

Now they have carried him into a France dressing room filled with Europe’s elite.

His first training session with Les Bleus came under the eye of newly appointed goalkeeping coach Fabien Barthez, a World Cup winner and a reference point for every French keeper of Butez’s generation. From Belgian title races to working drills with Barthez – the leap is huge, the adjustment immediate.

“Now, I’m here to replace him and discover a bit of this world, this group,” Butez said. “And I’m the happiest.”

Thrown into a brutal schedule

There will be no gentle introduction. France step into a demanding UEFA Nations League window: four matches in just eleven days. Turkey, Italy, and a double-header against Belgium. No time to settle, barely time to breathe.

In that kind of schedule, depth is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Butez arrives as the next man up, ready to push, ready to cover, ready if Zidane turns to him amid the churn of games.

For the Como keeper, this is the reward for years spent away from the spotlight, for bus rides in Belgium and Italy, for clean sheets that rarely made headlines. Now he stands at Clairefontaine, gloves on, number in the squad list, part of Zidane’s first Nations League campaign.

Late to the party, yes. But in a France side entering a relentless run of fixtures, his timing could not be better.