THEY SAID IT . . .
"How marvellous! It's a young team, who are on the top of the world. Some are champions at the age of 19. We did not play a huge game, but we showed mental quality. And we scored four goals anyway. They deserved to win. The group worked so hard and we had some tough moments along the way. It hurt so much to lose the Euro two years ago, but it made us learn too. The win is not about me, it's the players who won the game. For 55 days, we have done a lot of work. We are proud to be French, to be Blues. The victory in the match belongs to them. Vive le Republic." "I'm very happy. The road was long but it was worth it. We are proud to make the French happy. We had this role to help them forget all their problems. We play for that kind of thing. I do not just want to be in football but rather to be world champion. I want to do even better, but world champion is already good. We're going to "First of all I want to congratulate France. We are sad but proud at the same time. We played well but the penalty knocked the wind out of us and after that it was very difficult. I just want to say one sentence about that penalty: You don't give a penalty like that in a World Cup final. We wanted to win the World Cup so much but that's football. The French did not surprise us, we let in two soft goals coupled with an own goal and a penalty. What we had in terms of luck in this tournament, we lacked today. When you concede four goals you cannot "We have no regrets because we were the better team for much of the game. Unfortunately, some clumsy goals swung it their way. They will be celebrating but we can hold our heads high. When the emotions settle, we will be able to analyse more clearly. I am proud of the award. The incredible fan support makes me even happier. You know that despite the defeat you've achieved something big, but it's hard when you come so close and fall short."