According to reports, Kylian Mbappe, the captain of France, stopped this year's Under 21 team from going on strike during Ramadan.
Following a prohibition on game interruptions for Muslim players to break their fast by the French Football Federation last month, the Islamic holiday has become a point of dispute in French football.
The French national team setup then seems to have experienced problems that could only be fixed by senior captain Mbappe's intervention.
Get Football News France reports that several young players chose not to postpone the beginning of their fast in order to take advantage of the March international break, in contrast to the senior Muslim players in France's national teams.
They notified the coaching staff at Clairefontaine, France's national training facility, that they intended to start their fast right away.
According to the sources, some players were leaning heavily in favour of a strike and had considering staging a demonstration outside the office of Under 21 manager Sylvain Ripoll.
It has also been reported that some players pondered forgoing lunch to demonstrate their dedication to the fast.
The French FA was informed of the unhappiness among the youth players, which eventually led to the senior squad captain Mbappe being sent over to talk with the players about the problem.
After the meeting, some of the players elected not to fast, while others only chose to do so on specific days.
The lack of a clear guideline for all teams, according to Philippe Diallo, president of the French FA, may have led to the misunderstanding in the national squad.
After succeeding Hugo Lloris as captain of the national team in March of this year, Mbappe has only held the position for a short period of time.
In 68 appearances for the national team, the 24-year-old has scored 38 goals, including a hat-trick in the most recent World Cup final.
Another scandal during Ramadan occurred earlier this year when Nantes manager Antoine Kombouare controversially dropped one of his players for refusing to eat and drink on match days.
When the French club lost to Reims 3-0 last month, the manager left defender Jaouen Hadjam off of his team.
The 20-year-old Hadjam declined to break his Ramadan fast on matchday for religious reasons. Since signing from second-tier team Paris FC in January, he has made nine appearances.
The 59-year-old Kombouare, who oversaw Paris Saint-Germain from 2009 to 2011, disclosed that Hadjam's teammates consented to break their fast in order to play against Will Still's Reims.
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