This was not the sort of debut that screams for attention and then disappears. It was calmer than that, and in many ways more impressive. Lucas da Cunha stepped into France’s 1-0 win over Belgium and looked like a midfielder who understood the assignment immediately: keep the game moving, keep the structure intact and do the hard, unspectacular work that makes everything else possible.
That is exactly why the reaction around him mattered. Zinédine Zidane did not rave about tricks, goals or headlines. He praised the simple fact that Da Cunha played the way he usually does. In a first France appearance, in a group he did not know, that is not a small compliment. It is the kind of endorsement that tells you a player has arrived by being himself, not by trying to perform a version of himself for the occasion.
The numbers help explain why this debut felt so natural. Da Cunha had 97 actions with the ball, completed 89 passes and tried eight long balls, of which six found their target. That is the profile of a deep-lying organiser who keeps a team stitched together rather than one who turns every touch into theatre. Against Belgium, that was a perfectly respectable way to make an entrance.
From Serie B to France in a remarkably short time
What makes this rise so striking is the speed of it. Two years earlier, Da Cunha was playing in Serie B for Como. In 2023, he joined the club for 750 thousand euros. By the 2024/25 season, he had adapted to Serie A and become one of Como’s standouts. Now he has made his first appearance for France. That is not a slow-burning career arc. That is a player forcing his way into a much bigger conversation.
The Como connection is impossible to separate from the international breakthrough. Cesc Fàbregas has already been clear about what Da Cunha gives him. In March of last year, after a Como win over Milan, he said he would play with 11 Da Cunha if he could. That was not just a throwaway compliment. It was a blunt way of saying the midfielder plays exactly the way the team is meant to play. Fàbregas later added that Da Cunha understands everything they want to do and would “go through a wall” for the idea after just a second of explanation.
That is why France’s decision to trust him makes sense. Da Cunha is described as a Franco-Portuguese midfielder who could have played for Portugal, but he is now in the France setup because he has earned the chance. Lucas da Cunha said the coach gave him full confidence, told him to do what he does at club level and play freely, and that he felt good on the pitch. More importantly, he made it clear how much the moment meant to him. He said making a first game for the national team is no small thing, recalled being in the second division only a few years ago, and described his debut as proof that hard work and persistence still count for something.
That is the real story here. Not just that France won 1-0 away against Belgium. Not just that Da Cunha made his debut on Monday, 28. It is that a player who was in Serie B two years earlier has now been trusted on the international stage and immediately looked at home doing the exact job his club manager values most.
In modern football, that is not nothing. In fact, it is usually how a serious career starts: not with noise, but with competence. Da Cunha has reached the point where the noise is beginning to follow him anyway.
