French ambassador ecstatic over Reggae Girlz World Cup qualification
IT WOULD be difficult to convince French ambassador to Jamaica, Denys Wibaux, that it wasn’t a blessing that caused him to be sent on diplomatic duties to the island at the same time that Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, to be held in France next year.
The memory is still fresh in his mind of Jamaica’s senior men’s team playing at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, but he said the privilege is as great to know that Jamaican females will be on show 20 years later.
“Believe it or not, I am blessed. This is because I arrived for the beginning of my tenure here in Jamaica very recently. I have only been here for eight weeks. The beginning of my tenure coincides with the qualification of the Jamaican women for the next women’s World Cup in my country. I am very happy that we will have the privilege of seeing the girls play in France.”
A LOVER OF FOOTBALL
Wibaux is himself a lover of football and seems not to miss a beat whenever his national team is on duty.
“I don’t play cricket, I must confess, but I play football, and I am happy to see that we share with each other this love for football. I was in France in 1998 when we had the World Cup over there. It was a great celebration that happened in 1998 when France won the World Cup. The French people just went crazy.
“After the match, people would go into the streets and celebrate all night long. A similar thing happened a few months ago, 20 years later in 2018, when France was crowned World Cup champions in Russia. Football is really part of our French culture and I observe the same thing in Jamaica.”