France national football team

1 (December 1984-April 1985
August 1985
February-June 1986
July 1998-March 1999
June 2000-May 2002
September 2003-August 2004
August 2006-October 2006
February 2007
June 2007-July 2007)

Lowest Elo ranking

44 (May 1928
February 1930)

First international

Belgium 3 - 3 France

(Brussels, Belgium; 1 May 1904)

Biggest win

France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan
(Auxerre, France; 6 September 1995)

Biggest defeat

Denmark 17 - 1 France
(London, England; 22 October 1908)

World Cup

Appearances

12 (First in 1930)

Best result

Winners, 1998

European Championship

Appearances

7 (First in 1960)

Best result

Winners, 1984 and 2000

Confederations Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 2001)

Best result

Winners, 2001 and 2003

Men's Football
Olympic medal record
Silver	1900 Paris
Gold	1984 Los Angeles

The French national football team represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.

France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930. Except for mild success in the 1950s, the French team was a modest competitor from its beginnings until the 1970s. In the 1980s, led by midfielder and captain Michel Platini, the team reached semi-finals at both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and won the 1984 European Championship.

France then reached an even higher status in international football by being especially successful at the end of the 1990s and in the 2000s; they won the World Cup as the host nation in 1998, and the European Football Championship two years later, while also placing second at the 2006 World Cup tournament. Midfielder Zinedine Zidane was particularly instrumental in achieving those honours.

France and Argentina are the only national teams in the world which have won the four most important titles organized by FIFA: World Cup, Gold medal in football in the Olympic Games, Confederations Cup, and the Continental Cup (Copa America for Argentina, and UEFA European Football Championship for France).

History

Early years

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. France was beaten by Brazil in semi-finals, after central defender Robert Jonquet's injury and Pelé hat-trick. Striker Just Fontaine scored a record 13 goals in the tournament, doing so in just six matches. The team used mainly players and former players from Stade de Reims, such as Raymond Kopa, Robert Jonquet, Edo Kumwembe,[Roger Marche]] or Just Fontaine, who was at the time one of the best teams in European football.

Platini era

During the captaincy of Michel Platini France's World Cup performance markedly improved, finishing fourth in Spain '82, and third in Mexico '86. In both tournaments, they lost in the semi-finals to West Germany. The 1982 semi-final is infamously remembered by many for West German keeper Harald Schumacher's elbowing of France's Patrick Battiston in the face as the latter made a shot on goal. Despite severely injuring Battiston, Schumacher was not penalized. France were also knocked out in the semi-final 1986 and with Platini, now recognized as one of football's all time greats they could have won. However, with Platini as skipper, France, as host nation, won Euro '84, as well as capturing Olympic gold in Los Angeles the same year.

Zidane era

France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zinédine Zidane . 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.

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 Trezeguet scored the golden goal in extra time after a controversial equalizing goal from Wiltord in the 5th minute of stoppage time. 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[1]. 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 goaless 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], 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. 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, but the teams were level at 1-1 at the end of normal time. With 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 fourth player to be sent off in a world cup final) for violent conduct when he headbutted Marco Materazzi with only ten minutes until extra-time.

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 they lost 3-2 to Russia on June 5, 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 Trezeguet. France beat Lithuania 1-0 on March 24, 2007 with Chelsea 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 Vieira,and David Trezeguet. France took on Ukraine on June 2, 2007 in Paris. Both team were hit by injuries with France missing Patrick Vieira 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. On September 8, 2007, in a much-anticipated rematch, France and Italy played to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro in Milan. Once again though, on September 12, 2007, France fell to Scotland and were defeated 1-0 after Landreau was caught off guard with a strike from Scotland's James McFadden adding another loss, but this time on their home (Parc des Princes) turf. On the October 12, 2007, their match with the Faroe Islands, was threatened to be postponed after bad weather kept their plane from landing in the Faroe Islands, they had to spend the night in Norway. The next day however on 13 October 2007, the match went ahead as planned, albeit around 30 minutes after scheduled kick-off time with France taking just 8 minutes to open up a 2-0 lead, the match eventually finished 6-0 with strikes from Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, and 2 goals from Karim Benzema just before half time. In the second half Jerome Rothen and Hatem Ben Arfa completed the rout. With Italy's victory over Scotland on November 17, 2007, France only just, by 2 points over Scotland, qualified for Euro 2008.

2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification

Team
France
Romania
Serbia
Lithuania
Austria
Faroe Islands

Representing multicultural France

On the 2006 French national 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 an immigrant couple from Algeria,now Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri are from the French Algerian people. 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, Bafétimbi Gomis has double French-Senegalese nationality, and Claude Makélélé did likewise from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lilian Thuram is from France's overseas department of Guadeloupe. 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 years, 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 shitty black"). 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[2], 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 4-1 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play and caused the game to be suspended. It was never resumed.

Competitive record

World Cup record

Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Round 1	7	3	1	0	2	4	3
1934	Round of 16	9	1	0	0	1	2	3
1938	Quarterfinals	6	2	1	0	1	4	4
1950	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Round 1	11	2	1	0	1	3	3
1958	Third Place	3	6	4	0	2	23	15
1962	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	2	5
1970	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Round 1	12	3	1	0	2	5	5
1982	Fourth Place	4	7	3	2	2	16	12
1986	Third Place	3	7	4	2	1	12	6
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Champions	1	7	6	1	0	15	2
2002	Round 1	28	3	0	1	2	0	3
2006	Final	2	7	4	3	0	9	3
Total	12/18	1 Title	51	25	10	16	95	64

European Championship record

Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Semifinals	2	0	0	2	4	7
1964	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Champions	5	5	0	0	14	4
1988	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Round 1	3	0	2	1	2	3
1996	Semifinals	5	2	3	0	5	2
2000	Champions	6	5	0	1	13	7
2004	Quarterfinals	4	2	1	1	7	5
2008	Qualified
Total	7/13	25	14	6	5	45	28

Confederations Cup record

Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Champions	5	4	0	1	12	2
2003	Champions	5	5	0	0	12	3
2005	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2009
Total	2/7	10	9	0	1	24	5

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Current squad

23-man squad for the UEFA EURO 2008.

Caps and goals as of June 3, 2008.

Number	Name	DOB	Club	Caps (goals)
Goalkeepers
1	Steve Mandanda	March 28, 1985 (age 23)	Marseille	1 (0)
16	Sébastien Frey	March 18, 1980 (age 28)	Fiorentina	2 (0)
23	Grégory Coupet	December 31, 1972 (age 35)	Lyon	31 (0)
Defenders
2	Jean-Alain Boumsong	December 28, 1979 (age 28)	Lyon	23 (1)
3	Éric Abidal	July 11, 1979 (age 28)	Barcelona	35 (0)
5	William Gallas	August 17, 1977 (age 30)	Arsenal	62 (2)
13	Patrice Evra	May 15, 1981 (age 27)	Manchester United	11 (0)
14	François Clerc	April 18, 1983 (age 25)	Lyon	11 (0)
15	Lilian Thuram	January 1, 1972 (age 36)	Barcelona	140 (2)
17	Sébastien Squillaci	August 11, 1980 (age 27)	Lyon	13 (0)
19	Willy Sagnol	March 18, 1977 (age 31)	Bayern Munich	56 (0)
Midfielders
4	Patrick Vieira	June 23, 1976 (age 31)	Inter Milan	105 (6)
6	Claude Makélélé	February 18, 1973 (age 35)	Chelsea	68 (0)
7	Florent Malouda	June 13, 1980 (age 27)	Chelsea	39 (3)
10	Sidney Govou	July 27, 1979 (age 28)	Lyon	32 (7)
11	Samir Nasri	June 20, 1987 (age 20)	Marseille	10 (2)
20	Jérémy Toulalan	September 10, 1983 (age 24)	Lyon	13 (0)
21	Lassana Diarra	March 10, 1985 (age 23)	Portsmouth	13 (0)
22	Franck Ribéry	April 1, 1983 (age 25)	Bayern Munich	27 (4)
Strikers
8	Nicolas Anelka	March 14, 1979 (age 29)	Chelsea	48 (11)
9	Karim Benzema	December 19, 1987 (age 20)	Lyon	11 (3)
12	Thierry Henry	August 17, 1977 (age 30)	Barcelona	100 (44)
18	Bafetimbi Gomis	June 8, 1985 (age 22)	Saint-Étienne	2 (2)

Coaching staff

Head Coach	Raymond Domenech
Assistant Coach	Pierre Mankowski
Goalkeeping Coach	Bruno Martini

Players

Famous past players

Manuel Amoros
Jocelyn Angloma
Henri Bard
Fabien Barthez
Joël Bats
Patrick Battiston
Bruno Bellone
Larbi Ben Barek
Laurent Blanc
Basile Boli
Maxime Bossis
Eric Cantona
Marcel Desailly
Didier Deschamps
Jean Djorkaeff
Youri Djorkaeff

Jean-Francois Domergue
Christophe Dugarry
Jean-Luc Ettori
Luis Fernández
Just Fontaine
Bernard Genghini
David Ginola
Alain Giresse
Ludovic Giuly
Robert Herbin
Robert Jonquet
Raymond Kopa
Bernard Lama
Lucien Laurent
Bixente Lizarazu
Eugène Maës

Jean-Pierre Papin
Emmanuel Petit
Roger Piantoni
Robert Pirès
Michel Platini
Dominique Rocheteau
Didier Six
Yannick Stopyra
Jean Tigana
Marius Trésor
David Trézéguet
Thierry Tusseau
Jean Vincent
Zinedine Zidane

Most capped French players

As of June 3, 2008, the ten players with the most caps for France are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Lilian Thuram*	1994 - Present	140	2
2	Marcel Desailly	1993 - 2004	116	3
3	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	108	31
4	Patrick Vieira*	1997 - Present	105	6
5	Didier Deschamps	1989 - 2000	103	4
6	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	100	44
7	Bixente Lizarazu	1992 - 2004	97	2
7	Laurent Blanc	1989 - 2000	97	16
9	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	92	26
10	Fabien Barthez	1994 - 2006	87	0

Members of the 1998 FIFA World Cup winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Top France goalscorers

As of June 3, 2008 the highest ten goalscorers for France are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	44 (100)
2	Michel Platini	1976 - 1987	41 (72)
3	David Trézéguet*	1998 - 2008	34 (71)
4	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	31 (108)
5	Just Fontaine	1953 - 1960	30 (21)
5	Jean-Pierre Papin	1986 - 1995	30 (54)
7	Youri Djorkaeff	1993 - 2002	28 (82)
8	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	26 (92)
9	Jean Vincent	1953 - 1961	22 (46)
10	Jean Nicolas	1933 - 1938	21 (25)

Members of the 1998 FIFA World Cup winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Coaches

Before 1955, players were selected by committee.

Albert Batteux (1955-1962)
Henri Guérin (1962-1966)
José Arribas and Jean Snella (1966)
Just Fontaine (1967)
Louis Dugauguez (1967-1968)
Georges Boulogne (1969-1973)
Stefan Kovacs (1973-1975)
Michel Hidalgo (1976-1984)
Henri Michel (1984-1988)
Michel Platini (1988-1992)
Gérard Houllier (1992-1993)
Aimé Jacquet (1993-1998)
Roger Lemerre (1998-2002)
Jacques Santini (2002-2004)
Raymond Domenech (2004-present)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.