Paul Marshall in France

It is appropriate that on the day François Hollande, France's freshly-elected president, was picking key members of the team that will help him lead the country over the next five years, 'Le President' of Les Bleus was selecting his squad for Euro 2012. Monsieur Hollande would barely have had the opportunity to discover where Nicolas Sarkozy had hidden the Elysées Palace remote control when he moved into the presidential digs in Paris on Tuesday before Laurent Blanc made public the full 26 names of his preliminary squad for this summer's European championship.

Francois Hollande and his companion Valerie Trierweiler...

Squad:
Goalkeepers: Cedric Carrasso (Bordeaux), Hugo Lloris (Lyon), Steve Mandanda (Marseille).

Defenders: Gael Clichy (Manchester City), Mathieu Debuchy (Lille), Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Philippe Mexes (AC Milan), Adil Rami (Valencia), Anthony Reveillere (Lyon), Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (Montpellier).

Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (Newcastle), Alou Diarra (Marseille) Yoann Gourcuff (Lyon), Yann M'Vila (Rennes), Florent Malouda (Chelsea), Marvin Martin (Sochaux), Blaise Matuidi (Paris Saint-Germain), Samir Nasri (Manchester City).

Forwards: Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Olivier Giroud (Montpellier), Jeremy Menez (Paris Saint-Germain), Loic Remy (Marseille), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseille).