France national football team

The French football team is among the top teams in international football, having won the 1998 World Cup and reached the final in 2006 World Cup. They also captured Euro 1984 and Euro 2000. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.

History

Platini era

France came third in the 1958 FIFA World Cup. The generation of Michel Platini and others came fourth in 1982, and third in 1986. During both tournaments, they lost in the semi-finals to West Germany. The 1982 semi-final would be infamously remembered because German keeper Harald Schumacher elbowed French substitute Patrick Battiston as the latter made a shot on goal. Despite severely injuring Battiston, Schumacher was not penalized and perhaps this contributed to France's defeat on penalties.

Besides consecutive semi-final finishes at the World Cup, France also won the European Championship in 1984. They also captured the gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympics that year.

Cantona era

Having made his international début against West Germany in August 1987, Eric Cantona was the favourite of Michel Platini, now the national team manager, who claimed that Cantona would be selected as long as he was playing competitive top class football. However, France failed to qualify for Euro 1988 despite being the defending champions. Cantona was then suspended from internationals for a year after he insulted the French national team manager on television in August 1988. France failed to win a single game in the European Championship, held in Sweden in 1992, despite the striking partnership of Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin. Platini resigned after the finals to be replaced by Gerard Houllier.

France then failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA, after losing the final game 2-1 at home to Bulgaria when a draw would suffice. David Ginola lost the ball in the game which led to Bulgaria's winning goal by Emil Kostadinov. Gerard Houllier resigned and Aimé Jacquet was made the manager of the national team, but only provisionally. After a promising series of friendly matches (notably a victory over Italy in Naples in February 1994), his provisional status was upgraded to permanent.

Jacquet began to rebuild the national team in preparation for Euro 96 and appointed Cantona as the captain. Cantona held this position until he kicked a Crystal Palace fan in January 1995, which earned him a year-long suspension from all international matches. By the time Cantona's suspension had been completed, he would not be selected for France again as Jacquet had revamped the team with some new blood, including Zinedine Zidane, around whom the team was now built. The choice of players for Euro 96, notably the absence of veterans Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola, caused some fans to grit their teeth. Jacquet himself stated that the team had done well without Cantona and that he wanted to keep faith with the players who had taken them so far FourFourTwo Great Footballers: Eric Cantona 198.. Jacquet's decision was vindicated at Les Bleus made it to the semi-finals of Euro 96, their best showing in an international tournament since the 1986 World Cup, and managed to show they could survive despite missing veteran players.

Golden generation

France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zinedine Zidane and others. This team started off well by reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96. After Euro 96, Jacquet adopted a very defensive strategy afterwards and made fans anxious because his team never seemed to develop a definitive offensive tactic. The press began to attack the team manager, calling his methods "paleolithic" and claiming that the team had no hope for the World Cup. In June 1997 at the Tournament of France, cries of "Resign!" could be heard from the stadium as the French team came in under Brazil, England and Italy. The media's distrust of Jacquet reached fever pitch in May 1998 when, instead of a list of 22 players meant to play in the World Cup, Jacquet gave a list of 28 players, causing the sports daily L'Équipe to write an editoral arguing that Jacquet was not the right man to lead the French team to victory.

However, all that would change when the team began to play in the qualifying rounds for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which would be hosted in their home country. It was clear that though Jacquet's team was far from being the most flamboyant in French history, it was a perfectly well-oiled machine that neither injury, nor expulsions, nor suspensions, managed to stop. The crowning moment of their glory was when they soundly defeated the defending champions Brazil 3-0. France's inaugural triumph also made them the first host in 20 years to capture the World Cup.

Jacquet stepped down after France's World Cup triumph and was succeeded by assistant Roger Lemerre. Under Lemerre's guidance, they won , defeating Italy 2-1 in a come from behind victory, giving them the distinction of being the first national team to hold both the World Cup and Euro titles since West Germany did so in 1974. France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001-2002.

France failed to maintain that pace in subsequent tournaments. They suffered a stunning first round elimination in the 2002 FIFA World Cup due to the injury to key playmaker Zidane. Lemerre was dismissed after the tournament. A full strength team started out strongly in , with Zidane scoring a free kick and a penalty to defeat England in the group stage, but they were upset in the quarter-finals. Jacques Santini resigned as coach and Raymond Domenech was picked as his replacement.

2006 World Cup

France struggled in the qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, even though the team was seeded in a group that included the relatively unheralded teams of Israel, Switzerland and the Republic of Ireland, prompting Domenech to persuade "golden generation" members Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zidane out of international retirement to help the national team qualify.

The team was greeted with modest expectations as it entered the World Cup tournament, with many arguing that despite the return of the three stars, its squad was too old to be competitive. They had a slow start in the group stage and were in danger of being eliminated after managing only 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Switzerland and South Korea, respectively. Though Zidane was forced to sit out because of accumulated bookings, France found their form and won their final group game, beating Togo 2-0 to advance to the knockout round. There, Zidane would score or assist in every game of the playoffs and his team upset heavily favoured Spain 3-1 in a come-from-behind victory to advance to the quarter-finals.

France next eliminated defending World Cup champion and top-ranked Brazil 1-0 to advance into the cup semi-finals. Despite the score, France had thoroughly outplayed Brazil in the match, only facing one shot on goal, while Zidane created numerous scoring chances with his dribbles past Brazillian defenders and his free-kick to Thierry Henry resulting in the winning goal. The game made France the first team to have shut out the five-time champions in consecutive matches; Fabien Barthez was the keeper in both matches, giving him the distinction of being the only keeper to have defeated Brazil twice. Les Bleus now have a 2-1-1 all-time record against Brazil in World Cup finals play, having shut the Seleção out in the last three meetings (the 1986 match was decided 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw).

France emerged from the semi-finals winning 1-0 over Portugal. Henry was tripped inside the box and a penalty was awarded, which Zidane scored and it stood as the winning goal, as defender Lilian Thuram neutralized offensive threats from Portuguess stars Pauleta and Cristiano Ronaldo. At home, when news came of France's victory, there were mass celebrations at the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.

France lost the 2006 final 1-1 (5-3 on penalties) to Italy, a game in which Zidane scored a goal (becoming only the fourth player to score in two World Cup final games) but also was sent off with a red card by headbutting an Italian player at 110'. The French public hailed their national team as heros, with the general sentiment being that the Italians had cheated the French out of victory by provoking Zidane with a racial slur, an accuse rejected by Zidane himself.

Representing multicultural France

Since the 1990s, the French national team has been held up as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal.[1]The team has found great international sporting success while remaining ethnically and racially diverse, featuring players from the overseas departments or players who are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants from former French colonial possessions. Zinedine Zidane and Franck Ribéry are Muslims; Zidane is the child of immigrants from Algeria; Lilian Thuram, William Gallas and Thierry Henry are all of Antillean origin, the first two coming from the overseas department of Guadaloupe and Henry the child of parents born in Guadaloupe and Martinique; Florent Malouda was born in French Guiana; Patrick Vieira immigrated as a child from Senegal.

All this has been met with great frustration by members of the more xenophobic elements of French society, and the team has a long history of confrontation with National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. The "Black, Blanc, Beur" 1998 team won the World Cup seemingly in response to Le Pen's complaints that the team did not look sufficiently "French". In 2002, led by Ghana-born Marcel Desailly, the French team unanimously publicly appealled to the French voting public to reject the presidential candidacy of Le Pen and instead return President Jacques Chirac to office in a landslide.

In 2004, a TV crew caught Spanish coach Luis Aragonés motivating Thierry Henry's Arsenal teammate José Antonio Reyes in a strange way. The phrase used was "Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda", meaning 'Show that you're better than that shitty black guy'. After an investigation, UEFA fined the RFEF 100,000 Swiss francs and warned that future incidents would be punished more severely, from suspension from major international tournaments or the closure of Spain's home international matches to supporters. Henry and Nike started the Stand Up Speak Up campaign against football racism as a result of the incident.

In 2006, the team reached another World Cup final, exacting some poetic justice by elminating Aragonés' Spanish team along the way. Once again, their truimphs came amidst criticism from Le Pen that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players. [2] The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle with its emerging multicultural identity. Even thought both players denied it, international media speculated for days after the event a racist element to the exchange.

World Cup record

|Year|1930|1934|1938|1950|1954|1958|1962|1966|1970|1974|1978|1982|1986|1990|1994|1998|2002|2006|Total

Finish	Matches	Wins	Draws*	Losses	Goals Scored	Goals Against
Round 1	3	1	0	2	4	3
Round 1	1	0	0	1	2	3
Quarter-final	2	1	0	1	4	4
Did not qualify
Round 1	2	1	0	1	3	3
Third place	6	4	0	2	23	15
Did not qualify
Round 1	3	0	1	2	2	5
Did not qualify
Did not qualify
Round 1	3	1	0	2	5	5
Fourth place	7	3	2	2	16	12
Third place	7	4	2	1	12	6
Did not qualify
Did not qualify
Champions	7	6	1	0	15	2
Round 1	3	0	1	2	0	3
Runners-up	7	4	3	0	9	3
	51	25	10	16	95	64

Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

European Championship record

*1960 - Fourth place
*1964 to 1980 - Did not qualify
*1984 - Champions
*1988 - Did not qualify
*1992 - Round 1
*1996 - Semi-finals
*2000 - Champions
*2004 - Quarter-finals

Famous Past players

{|valign="top"|
*Manuel Amoros
*Jocelyn Angloma
*Joël Bats
*Patrick Battiston
*Larbi Ben Barek
*Laurent Blanc
*Basile Boli
*Maxime Bossis
*Eric Cantona
*Pierre Chayriguès
*Julien Darui
*Marcel Desailly
*Didier Deschamps
*Jules Dewaquez
*Jean Djorkaeff
*Youri Djorkaeff
*Jean-Francois Domergue
*Christophe Dugarry
*Luis Fernández
*Just Fontaine