WCup win gives France a big boost
WITH the golden World Cup trophy in hand, France’s victorious national team returned home to a grand “Merci!” from a grateful nation that was sorely in need of a boost.
“Eternal Happiness” said yesterday’s headline in the sports daily L’Equipe, summing up the mood of many who hope this euphoria will last for months — even years.
France welcomed home the national soccer team yesterday for a victory lap down the grand Champs-Elysees, the grand Paris avenue where hundreds of thousands thronged after its 4-2 win on Sunday over Croatia to capture the trophy.
That was to be followed by a reception at the presidential palace, with hundreds of guests, including people from soccer clubs known to the French players, like that of the poor suburb of Bondy, where 19-year-old star Kylian Mbappe grew up.
The victorious players will all be awarded the Legion of Honor, the office of President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday ahead of their visit to the Elysee Palace.
No date has yet been set for the ceremony to hand over France’s highest award for “exceptional service” to the nation.
Several Paris Metro stations are temporarily adjusting their names to honor the team and its members, the transport authority tweeted. The ChampsElysees Clemenceau has become the Deschamps-Elysees Clemenceau to honor national team coach Didier Deschamps.
The Etoiles station is for now “On a 2 Etoiles” (We have 2 stars), to denote France’s second World Cup victory, after one in 1998, while the Victor Hugo station is now Victor Hugo Lloris, after France’s standout goalkeeper and team captain.
Celebrations were spread across the nation, and among still-dazed French players themselves. “We are linked for life now with this Cup,” defender Raphael Varane told BFM-TV yesterday before departing for home from Moscow.
President Macron exulted on the field in Moscow, hugging players as they received their medals even as the heavens opened up and poured down on everyone, and congratulating the players again in the locker room. He is clearly hoping the World Cup victory glow rubs off on him, raising him up in a nation that is fiercely protesting his economic reforms.
It’s the players, though, who have captured the French imagination, a mostly youthful, diverse group that represents a generation which traditionalists have yet to come to terms with.
Sports Minister Laura Flessel told Europe-1 radio that the World Cup victory allows France’s youth — like those in the poor suburbs where many of the players grew up — “to dare to believe in their dreams.”
Joy over the victory brightened the Monday morning commute in Paris, with young people in cars still singing and shouting in celebration.
In the east Paris neighborhood of Belleville, Vincent Simon said, “Both teams deserved to win. France won, and that’s good for the country. That will do us good for some months.”
The victory came at a time when many French were in need of good news.
“It represents enormous things,” said Goffrey Hamsik, dressed in a hat resembling a rooster — the national symbol.
“We’ve had lots of problems in France these past years,” Hamsik said, recalling deadly terror attacks. “This is good for the morale ... Here, we are all united. We mix. There is no religion, there is nothing, and that’s what feels good.”