Although born in Marseille the Bayern Munich defender was raised in
Spain and felt ‘more Spanish than French’ before a decisive day back in 2018
This article is part of the Guardian’s Euro 2020 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 24 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.
Lucas Hernandez has a
World Cup winner’s medal for
France but could be playing for Spain if not for a phone call from Didier Deschamps three months before that 2018 tournament in
Russia and a chat with his Atlético Madrid teammate Antoine Griezmann.