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Wembanyama to return to French national basketball team for World Cup

NBA star Victor Wembanyama is set to make his return to the French national team for the first time since the 2024 Olympics, the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) announced on Saturday. Wembanyama has been named in the squad for the first two matches of the main qualifying round for the 2027 World Cup, which will take place at the end of August against Slovenia and then Sweden. Wembanyama will also take part in two warm-up matches against Serbia one week before the qualifiers. The 22-year-old had been forced to withdraw from Euro 2025, having not fully recovered from the venous thrombosis in his right shoulder that brought his 2024/25 season to a premature end. French national team coach Frederic Fauthoux called Wembanyama's return "extremely important for the future of the project we want to pursue". "Victor is the undisputed leader of this generation. We need him here so that a relationship can develop with the rest of the squad, both on and off the court," he added. Fauthoux is set to coach the 2023 NBA draft No. 1 overall pick for the first time, having taken over from Vincent Collet following the Paris Games. Les Bleus lost the Olympics final to the United States 98–87, a match in which Wembanyama finished as the top scorer with 26 points, plus seven rebounds. Last NBA season, the Frenchman averaged 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, an NBA-best 3.1 blocked shots and 1.0 steals a game for San Antonio as the Spurs reached the NBA Finals but lost to the New York Knicks. "Wemby" was unanimously voted the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and sparked the Spurs to the second-best record in the league at 62-20, then in his first NBA playoff run ousted Portland, Minnesota and Oklahoma City to reach the finals. (FRANCE 24 with AFP)

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