Jean Butez: Como Goalkeeper Becomes France International at 31

Jean Butez was still on the plane when his life changed.

The Como goalkeeper, 31 years and three months old, landed from an away trip alongside team-mate Lucas Da Cunha and switched his phone back on. One message stood out. By the time he stepped off the aircraft, he was no longer just Como’s No 1. He was a France international.

A first call-up at 31. For Les Bleus. From Serie A’s newly promoted Como. It reads like a late-career twist in a football novel, yet it is very real.

Oldest debutant in nearly 50 years

Butez’s inclusion came at the last moment after RC Lens keeper Robin Risser withdrew from Zinedine Zidane’s squad following medical consultations. The change opened a door that had never really seemed his to walk through.

By answering that call, Butez became the oldest player to receive a first France call-up since Gerard Farison back in 1976. Almost half a century on, another latecomer has forced his way into the blue shirt.

“I saw that stat, it’s pretty cool that I’m the one who broke that record. But you’re never too old for your first selection,” Butez said after arriving at CNF Clairefontaine. “Obviously, I wasn’t expecting it.”

He made sure to acknowledge the misfortune that cleared his path, expressing sympathy for the injured Risser while accepting the chance of a lifetime.

From Antwerp hero to Clairefontaine

This is not a fairytale plucked from nowhere. Butez has served his apprenticeship the hard way, moving through Lille, Mouscron and then Royal Antwerp, where he built a reputation as one of the most reliable goalkeepers in Belgium.

His peak there came in 2023, when he helped Antwerp to a domestic treble, racking up 27 clean sheets in a season that turned heads across Europe. That body of work, and his calm presence, have finally been rewarded at international level.

Now he finds himself training under Fabien Barthez, the newly appointed goalkeeping coach and a legend of the position for France. One World Cup winner guiding a debutant who had long stopped expecting this phone call.

Butez has already completed his first session with Les Bleus, thrown straight into a dressing room stacked with Europe’s elite. The step up is huge; his reaction, simple.

“Now, I’m here to replace him and discover a bit of this world, this group,” he said. “And I’m the happiest.”

Thrown into a brutal schedule

There will be no gentle introduction. France are heading into a punishing UEFA Nations League window: four matches in eleven days, against Turkey, Italy and a double-header with Belgium.

It is the kind of schedule that tests not only the starting XI, but the depth behind it. Zidane will need every option he has. Butez arrives as third choice on paper, but his experience and consistency give the staff real security if called upon.

For Como, it is a remarkable endorsement of their project to see their goalkeeper step into the national team at this stage of his career. For Butez, it is validation of years spent away from the spotlight, quietly accumulating clean sheets and respect.

France now push into a new Nations League campaign with a fresh name in goal and a veteran rookie in the squad. The question is no longer whether Jean Butez deserves to be here.

It’s how far this late surge in his career can still take him.