Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny in France Euro 2012 preliminary squad

According to the official France Football website, Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is a member of the nation's preliminary 26-man squad for Euro 2012. This is clearly awesome for the central defender, who came on leaps and bounds this year in his 33 league, and 42 total, appearances for the club.

More after the jump.

After last year, many were unconvinced by the young Franco-Polish person, who was in the middle of the Carling Cup SNAFU, and who seemed to have a propensity to get his face in the way of Sebastien Squillaci's forehead more than in the way of opposition attacks.* This year, though, with a year of Premier League experience under his belt, he's been very solid, and remains an excellent tackler on the ground.

We'll have more about his year in a separate player review post later this month, though. For now, France's 27-man squad is a big step towards the tournament, and with news coming through that Younes Kaboul is a doubt for the summer, France will find it hard to cut a solid central defender for their final 23-man squad who plays in one of the world's gnarliest leagues.

* I'm willing to blame this on Squillaci, clearly.