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France National Footbal Team

Head coach: Raymond Domenech
Captain: Patrick Vieira
Top scorer: Michel Platini
FIFA ranking: 2

The French football team represents the nation of France in international football competitions. They have achieved recent success, having won the 1998 World Cup and coming second in the 2006 World Cup. They also won Euro 1984 and Euro 2000. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.

France has finished first, second, and third in both the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games, the only national football team to have done so.

France's first ever game was a 3-3 draw against Belgium in 1904. They played in all three of the pre-World War II World Cups. Lucien Laurent scored the first ever World Cup goal in 1930, in a 4-1 win over Mexico. They reached the quarterfinals in 1938 when they hosted the World Cup.

France came third in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, defeating Germany 6-3 for the bronze. Superstar Just Fontaine scored a record 13 goals in the tournament, doing so in just six matches.

Platini era

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 in the face as the latter made a shot on goal. Despite severely injuring Battiston, Schumacher was not penalized and perhaps this contributed to France's defeat in the decided shootout.

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 Euro 92 and was succeeded by Gérard 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. During the match, David Ginola lost the ball which led to Bulgaria's winning goal by Emil Kostadinov. Gérard 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. Jacquet initially selected Eric Cantona as captain and made him the team's playmaker. Cantona had successfully restarted his career in the FA Premier League and was playing some of the best football of his career, but he kicked a Crystal Palace fan in January 1995, which earned him a year-long suspension from all international matches.

As Cantona was the key playmaker, Jacquet was forced to make major changes to the team in the wake of his suspension. Jacquet revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zinedine Zidane, while dropping Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola. Jacquet's choice of players for the tournament caused some fans to grit their teeth but he succeeded in helping France qualify for the Euro 96.

Making it all the way to the semi-finals of Euro 96 before being eliminated in a penalty shootout, this marked France's best showing in an international tournament since the 1986 World Cup. More importantly, Les Bleus managed to show they could survive without veterans such as Jean-Pierre Papin, Eric Cantona, or David Ginola. 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.

Zidane era

France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zinédine Zidane and the emergence of Thierry Henry. This team started off well by reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96. After Euro 96, Jacquet adopted a very defensive strategy 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 upcoming World Cup which would be hosted in their home country. 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.

1998 World Cup

However, all that would change when the team began to play in the group stage of the 1998 World Cup. It was clear that though the 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.

Lilian Thuram and Marcel Desailly were lynchpins of the best defense in the tournament, conceding only 2 goals in seven matches. France swept their group, then defeated Paraguay 1-0 with a Golden Goal from Laurent Blanc. In the quarter-finals, they edged Italy in a penalty shootout after both teams were tied 0-0. Though they fell behind for the first time in the tournament to Croatia, Thuram scored two goals in France's comeback semi-final win.

The crowning moment of their glory was when they soundly defeated the defending champions Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup Final. In the first half, taking advantage of poor Brazilian marking at defensive set pieces, Zinédine Zidane scored two headed goals from France's corner kicks. Brazil was unable to find the net despite Desailly getting sent off and Emmanuel Petit added a third goal in the last minute of regular time to seal the victory for France. France's inaugural triumph also made them the first host in 20 years to win the World Cup. An estimated one million people took to the Paris streets to celebrate that night.

Euro 2000

Jacquet stepped down after France's World Cup triumph and was succeeded by assistant Roger Lemerre who guided them through Euro 2000. Zidane cemented his FIFA World Player of the Year form, scoring a direct free kick in the quarter-final against Spain and a golden goal penalty in the semi-final against Portugal.

In the finals, France defeated Italy 2-1 in a come from behind victory. David Trézéguet scored the golden goal in extra time after an equalizing goal from Wiltord. This gave 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, and it was also the first time that a reigning World Cup winner went on to capture the Euro. France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001-2002.

2002 World Cup and Euro 2004

France failed to maintain that pace in subsequent tournaments. They suffered a stunning first round elimination in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, possibly due in part to an injury to key playmaker Zidane. One of the greatest shocks in World Cup history condemned France to a 0-1 defeat to debutante Senegal in the opening game of the tournament. After France had finished bottom of the group with only securing one point, conceding three goals and without scoring any, Lemerre was dismissed.

A full strength team started out strongly in Euro 2004, with Zidane scoring a free kick and a penalty to overcome a 0-1 deficit and defeat England in the group stage, but they were upset in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners, Greece. 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 Faroe Islands. This prompted Domenech to persuade "golden generation" members Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zinédine Zidane out of international retirement to help the national team qualify. This was France's first successful World Cup qualification since 1986 (France received automatic berths in 1998 and 2002, as hosts and defending champions, respectively).

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 match, 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 eliminated Ludovic Giuly's team-mate Ronaldinho and the top-ranked, defending champions 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 Brazilian 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.[citations needed] 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 Portuguese 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 took on Italy in the final and with the teams level at 1-1 at the end of normal time, and extra-time failing to produce a victor, penalty kicks were required to settle the match. Italy won the shoot-out 5-3 to be crowned 2006 World Champions. The tournaments Golden Ball Winner Zinédine Zidane (playing his last professional match) scored the opening goal of the final (becoming only the fourth player to score in two World Cup final games), but his accomplishments in the finals were marred by his sending off (becoming only the third player to be sent off in a world cup final) for violent conduct when he headbutted Marco Materazzi with only ten minutes of extra-time remaining.

Euro 2008 Qualifiers

France started its qualifying round for Euro 2008 on September 2, 2006 by beating Georgia in Tbilisi 3-0.The goal scorers for this match were Malouda, Louis Saha and Malkhaz Asatiani (own goal). They then took on world champions Italy 3-1 in Paris on September 6, 2006 with Sidney Govou striking twice along with Henry, but suffered a huge upset when beaten 1-0 by Scotland on October 7, 2006, their first European Championship qualifying defeat since 1999. On October 11, 2006, France defeated Faroe Islands by 5-0. All the French strikers that played in the match scored. Goals came from Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and 2 goals from the Juventus striker David Trézéguet. France beat Lithuania 1-0 on March 24, 2007 with Bolton Wanderers striker Nicolas Anelka rescuing an injury hit French side by shooting a wonderful long range effort.The injuries suffered by France were Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Frank Ribéry, Patrick Viera,and David Trezeguet. France took on Ukraine on June 2, 2007 in Paris. Both team were hit by injuries with France missing Patrick Viera and Thierry Henry while Ukraine missed their world class striker Andriy Shevchenko.The game ended in a 2-0 victory with second half strikes from Franck Ribéry and Nicolas Anelka who scored his third goal in three matches. Then on June 6, 2007 France defeated Georgia in Auxerre by 1-0, with Samir Nasri scoring his first senior international goal.

Representing multicultural France

On the 2006 French national soccer team, 17 of the 23 players were members of racial minorities, including many of the most prominent players. The team featured players from the overseas departments and players who are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants from former French colonial territories. Zinédine Zidane is the child of immigrants from Algeria. Vikash Dhorasoo - the first French player of Indian origin - played in the 2006 World Cup. Meanwhile, several players are of African or West Indian origin. Patrick Vieira immigrated as a child from Senegal, and Claude Makélélé did likewise from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lilian Thuram and William Gallas are from France's overseas department of Guadeloupe, while Éric Abidal was born in Martinique. Thierry Henry is the son of parents born in Guadeloupe and Martinique, while Louis Saha, Sylvain Wiltord, and Pascal Chimbonda all have parents who hail from Guadeloupe. Finally, Florent Malouda was born in French Guiana.

The French national football team has long reflected the ethnic diversity of the country. The first black player playing in the national team was Raoul Diagne in 1931, the son of the first black African elected to the French National Assembly, Blaise Diagne. In the 1950s, the first French national team reaching international success with a semi-final at the World Cup 1958 already included many sons of immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Roger Piantoni, Maryan Wisnieski or Bernard Chiarelli. This tradition continued through the 1980s, when such successful players as Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Luis Fernandez, Gérard Janvion, Manuel Amoros or Eric Cantona were all of either foreign-born or overseas-born ancestries. Since the 1990s, the team has been widely celebrated as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal.

In recent year, critics on the far right of the French political spectrum have taken issue with the proportional underrepresentation of white Frenchmen on the team. National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen protested in 1998 that the Black, Blanc, Beur team that won the World Cup did not look sufficiently "French." In 2002, led by Ghanaian-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 2006, Le Pen also resumed his criticism, charging that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players.

In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused a controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," adding "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." He later excused himself for this comment, which he declared was not meant to be offensive.

In 2004, a television crew recorded Spanish coach Luis Aragonés motivating Thierry Henry's Arsenal teammate José Antonio Reyes by saying Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda ("Show that you're better than that black shit"). After an investigation, UEFA fined the RFEF and warned that future incidents would be punished more severely. Henry and Nike began a Stand Up Speak Up campaign against football racism as a result of the incident. Before the start of France's 2006 World Cup second round match against Spain, which France would win 3-1, coach Raymond Domenech claimed that Spanish fans were making racial taunts, this however was not proved.

The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the 2006 World Cup final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle to integrate its non-white immigrant population: Even though both players denied it, international media speculated for days about the presence of a racist element in the exchange, observing that the Italian team contained no ethnic minorities.

The national team's overall impact on France's efforts to integrate its minorities and come to terms with its colonial past has been mixed, however. In 2001, France played a friendly match in the Stade de France, site of its 1998 World Cup triumph, against Algeria. It was France's first meeting with its former colony, with whom it had fought a war from 1954-62, and it proved controversial. France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was booed by Algerian supporters before the game, and following a French goal that made the score 4-0 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play and caused the game to be suspended. It was never resumed.

France Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
1	Mickael Landreau	G	6-0	176	28
16	Sebastian Frey	G	6-2	187	27
23	Gregory Coupet	G	5-11	176	34
3	Eric Abidal	D	5-11	165	27
5	William Gallas	D	5-11	159	29
12	Bakari Sagna	D	5-9	159	24
13	Francois Clerc	D	6-2	170	24
15	Lilian Thuram	D	6-1	172	35
17	Sebastien Squillaci	D	6-0	174	26
21	Julien Escude	D	6-0	168	27
2	Vassiriki Diaby	M	6-2	172	21
4	Lassana Diarra	M	5-8	161	22
6	Claude Makelele	M	5-7	146	34
7	Florent Malouda	M	5-11	161	27
8	Jeremy Toulalan	M	6-0	170	23
11	Samir Nasri	M	5-10	165	20
18	Alou Diarra	M	6-3	174	25
22	Franck Ribery	M	5-9	159	24
9	Djibril Cisse	S	5-11	172	25
10	Sidney Govou	S	5-9	159	27
14	Jimmy Briand	S	5-11	163	22
20	Karim Benzema	S	6-0	161	19
39	Nicolas Anelka	S	6-1	170	28

Group B
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
France	7	6	0	1	15	2	13	18
Italy	7	5	1	1	13	6	7	16
Scotland	7	5	0	2	13	6	7	15
Ukraine	6	4	0	2	8	6	2	12
Lithuania	7	2	1	4	4	7	-3	7
Georgia	8	2	0	6	13	14	-1	6
Faroe Islands	8	0	0	8	2	27	-25	0