Point guard Joseph Gomis has emerged as a new French star after helping his side grab two consecutive victories in their friendlies against Belgium at the weekend.

The 26-year-old Frenchman, who plays with Spanish side Breogan Lugo, was celebrating his third and fourth caps on Friday and Saturday in Les Bleus' two easy wins (75-55 and 85-61) over their rivals.

France had been depleted by injuries to Mickael Pietrus (shoulder) and Antoine Rigaudeau (Achilles).

Furthermore, Tony Parker (San Antonio Spurs), Cyril Julian (Malaga), Moustapha Sonko (Real Madrid) and Paccelis Morlende (Benetton Treviso) are all concentrating on their club careers, forcing coach Claude Bergeaud to experiment.

Yannick Bokolo and Mamoutou Diarra also impressed but Gomis was named man-of-the-match in the second game with a points haul of 19.

"The French national team is a great thing for me," Gomis said.

"I am very happy to be here and I came to earn the right to take part to the Euro 2005 qualifiers in September.

"Everyone knows each other in the team and the atmosphere is great.

"I think our game is going to become more of a team game than in the previous years."

But Bergeaud insists Gomis must reproduce similar performances if he wants to book his place for the qualifiers.

"He plays very well but he must repeat that performance against stronger rivals," he said in L'Equipe.

Gomis, who was called up twice in 2002, won the Korac Cup while with Nancy the same year.
He is now with Lugo and added: "Lugo is an average club from the Spanish league.

"We finished 15th last campaign. But I can really express myself in that team. It really counts a lot for me and I can guarantee that we will be ambitious next season."

The French team will next start another training camp in Pau from August 12 to 18 and they start their qualifying campaign on September 8 against Slovenia.