Schneiderlin eyeing international recognition

The 23-year-old has yet to receive senior international recognition, with a handful of appearances for France's Under-21s in 2010 marking the limit of his experience.

However, after a strong start to the season with Southampton that has helped the south-coast club to fourth in the Premier League, Schneiderlin admits that he dreams of a call-up to Didier Deschamps' side - although he acknowledges that he is some way off that just yet.

"My ambition, personally, is to get in the (France) squad, so that's why I'm working very hard on everything, but that's the way it is," he told The Daily Echo. 

"France, they play a very important game (against Finland) to get that play-off to get to the World Cup, and after that I think it is going to be very hard, to be honest. But who knows?

"If Southampton are still doing very well and we're still keeping in the top four to Christmas, who knows, maybe he (Deschamps) is going to give me a chance to see what I can do and then I have to step up.

"But, at the moment, I feel it's going to be very hard. There's many, many good players (in my position)."

France are currently second in FIFA World Cup qualifying Group I, on the same points as Spain having played a game more than the world champions.