The language of possibility sometimes gets lost in translation. Didier Deschamps, in Kazan preparing for France’s opening World Cup match, fielded many a question about the age and temperament of a squad replete with talent yet short on big tournament experience. Not since the first World Cup in 1930, when teams from Europe spent long days on a boat crossing the Atlantic to reach the original hosts in Uruguay, have France come to a World Cup with such a youthful gathering of talent.

The word “risk” came up. When analysing the contribution of young players it is just as easy to accentuate the positive – boldness, fearlessness, freshness – as the negative. But that word hung in the air a little reproachfully, lobbed at Deschamps a little anxiously. The inference was clear. Inexperience. Would it inhibit? Might it lead to a rash mistake? “It is not a risk,” Deschamps retorted. “Those young people are there, and if I have selected them it is because they are good for the team. They are here because they have the quality to be here.”

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From this 23‑man squad 14 will be taking their first steps on to the big tournament stage – but they are hardly rookies, elevated suddenly from nowhere. The youngest of the young is Kylian Mbappé, a teenager whose footballing story has already been embellished with some massive storylines. He is unfazed by this notion that youth accentuates risk. As it happens – not that anyone is making too much of it at the moment – one of the players whose form has been most wobbly during the World Cup preparations is Hugo Lloris, the captain and one of the group’s elder statesmen.

Mbappé enthralled his audience in the week leading up to France’s opening game against Australia when he took centre stage to field questions about how his footballing life took him to this moment. Such is his confidence, his sureness in himself, the risk concept seemed almost alien to him. “We have a young team, yes. But when you watch, you see that we play in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Juve, Manchester …” he said, going on to list their achievements: Raphaël Varane’s titles with Real Madrid, Samuel Umtiti’s with Barcelona, Paul Pogba’s with Juventus before his record transfer to Old Trafford and so on. “I do not like talking about age. Either we can, or we cannot. If we cannot, we stay in France.”

Expectation hovers around him. As a teenager in this environment the scrutiny is bound to be wrapped up in a bit of a commotion. On the spectrum of World Cup teenagers that veers from Theo Walcott to Pelé, Mbappé’s meteoric rise suggests he is expected to chart quite high. For the boy who thrilled at Monaco, who earned the right to create a new‑look attack with Neymar for PSG and with Antoine Griezmann for France while still in his teens, life has moved pretty fast. “I learned to mix with different worlds,” he explains. “Monaco’s was quieter and family friendly. In Paris, it’s a world of superstars. Those are two different things. This allowed me to be able to adapt everywhere, in all circumstances, to be a chameleon. It was rewarding.”

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He is aware of his own shortcomings and the need to improve in defensive and tactical discipline. “I do not know if I am too harsh with myself. But that’s what makes you grow. I do not have time to watch the videos where I scored, where I dribbled. I’m looking at my defensive videos, the missed opportunities.”

Taking part in the World Cup was in Mbappé’s thoughts for a long time. “I thought it was possible. Didier Deschamps had already called young players like Anthony Martial, Kingsley Coman, Ousmane Dembélé. I thought I had to play.” Martial and Coman were part of the Euro 2016 squad, while Mbappé was blasting a trail through the under-19 European Championship. “I told myself: you must believe! We will go to this competition to really exceed our limits. We are a young generation starting to hatch. We appreciate each other. But what can we all do together? That’s the question. We’ll see what we can do.”

In a L’Équipe column Bixente Lizarazu, Deschamps’s 1998 World Cup‑winning teammate, noted the “technical complicity” growing between Griezmann and Mbappé. “We are just beginning to get a glimpse of what could be the duo of the summer and this World Cup,” Lizarazu added. “Together, they can hurt a lot.”

One of the notable questions about the team’s shape is whether they complete the attack with the zip of another young flyer in Dembélé or the sturdier physical presence of Olivier Giroud. Deschamps seems happy to have the options.

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There is flexibility in that Mbappé can play wide, as he tends to for PSG, or centrally, interchanging positions with Griezmann, but France are refining the plan to limit overcrowding, to prevent a kind of traffic jam building up if too many players drift into the same patch. “They do have freedom but can’t be all in the centre,” Deschamps said. “We have worked on that. The players choose how they want to use the space.”

Deschamps is trying to emphasise the calmness and concentration of the group – all the easier after Griezmann’s filmed announcement of his big decision to stay at Atlético Madrid two days before France’s first game. It was not quite up with Julen Lopetegui’s Real Madrid news for killer timing but not brilliant all the same. Deschamps batted it away as more of a media intrigue than a distraction for the squad, although he was pleased that such an important figure in the team no longer has any worries outside the camp.

“He has freed his mind for the World Cup. That’s a good thing for us. The good mood, enthusiasm, life, joy, is not against the seriousness of the work that needs to be done. The young players know that. We don’t want to be too tight. The idea is to be focused, be relaxed and play. We are going to bite into it with all our teeth as if it is a good apple.”