Cameroonian basketball player Joel Embiid has been granted French citizenship in a July 4 decree published in the Official Gazette that opens the doors of the Roosters team in light of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The 28-year-old Embiid is considered one of the NBA’s brightest stars, where he began his first steps in 2014, averaging 26 points and 11 rebounds per game.

The Philadelphia Giants (2.13m and 127kg) finished last year as the all-time leading regular season scoring scoring 30.6 points per game, but his playoff tally was cut by injuries as his team was eliminated from the tournament. tables. semi-final against Miami Heat 2-4.

The Cameroonian was injured by an elbow from his Toronto Raptors teammate Pascal Siakam in the final minutes of Game 6 of their series in the first round of the playoffs.

The history of Embiid and the French national team goes back to an earlier period, in 2016, when the Cameroonian was first approached by the National Football Association to come back and reveal his search two years later, to backlash.

Blues general manager Boris Diaw, a former NBA player, said in June that Embiid’s naturalization would not guarantee him a spot on the French team.

“The day he gets it, another challenge will be choosing players who can take on the French team while maintaining the psychological state of the group,” he said.