France team happy to say ‘vive la difference’ over its diverse roots
Set-piece strengths, Pogba’s midfield discipline and Mbappe’s pace make Deschamps’ side favourites for the final
When President Emmanuel Macron entered the French dressing room in St Petersburg after Les Bleus’ winning World Cup semi-final against Belgium, a moment of mutual respect offered hope that sport could generate a sense of unity.
“Bravo, gentlemen,” he told players representing several strands of France’s multicultural society.
“France is drowning in happiness thanks to you.”
If presidential congratulation was to be expected, the response was less so. The RMC radio station said that two of France’s stars – Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann – led team-mates in a chant: “Et pour le president, allez” (and for the president, come on).
Far from Russia’s second city, France – and most of the francophone world beyond Belgium – was en fete on Tuesday night as supporters celebrated confirmation of a first World Cup final appearance since the famous un-deux-trois triumph over Brazil in 1998.
Hundreds of thousands of fans invaded the Champs-Elysees in Paris, with the carnival mood spreading to towns and villages across the country.
Now as then, Les Bleus are drawn from mixed ethnic origins. Mbappe, already a phenomenon at 19, is the son of a Cameroonian father and an Algerian mother. Griezmann, although born in the Burgundy town of Macon, has German and Portuguese blood.
And throughout the squad is evidence of the different roots and skin colours that make up France’s sometimes fractured society – players born in France or abroad to parents with origins in Mali, Guinea, Togo, the Congo and Angola as well as Monaco, Italy and Spain.
The most French of the 11 players and two substitutes involved in the semi-final victory were two defenders, Benjamin Pavard, from Maubeuge in northern France, and Raphael Varane, the son of a French mother and a father from Martinique, a French overseas department in the Caribbean.
Almost as striking as France’s tournament success has been a spectacle to confound those on the populist right who complain that “the team isn’t really French at all” – millions of viewers have seen the unforced gusto as this cosmopolitan team sings the words of the national anthem, La Marseillaise.
The question now is whether the melting pot of shared pride can prove more durable that
the “black-blanc-beur” (blackwhite-Arab) spirit of the 1998 squad. Then, the march to glory was led by Zinedine Zidane, who was born in Marseille to Algerian immigrants.
But the example of 20 years ago is not encouraging. A sports sociologist, Ludovic Lestrelin, recalled that the mood of fraternity lasted all of one summer. “This team was seen as reflecting diversity, but it was a totally reconstructed, artificial proposition,” Prof Lestrelin said on his website.
For another academic, Emmanuel Blanchard, “black-blanc-beur” was an illusion.
Mr Blanchard, who wrote a
book entitled The Blues and the Beurs: A team of France closed to the descendants of Algerians?,
told Le Monde newspaper that between Algerian independence in 1962 and the selection of Zidane 32 years later, only one other player of Algerian descent was picked for France.
“There was a myth born during the 1998 World Cup around France black-white-beur, since Zidane was alone in embodying the ‘beur’ component,” he said.
Many footballers of Algerian origin, even when playing in France, previously opted for Algerian international recognition, he said.
The lesson of 1998, and the community tensions that continue to divide France, may suggest that no great faith should be attached to the power of football to overcome reciprocal suspicion and resentment.
But in their small way, the refreshing touches between players and president in Russia are reinforced by the thoughts of a young barber, of Algerian origin but Marseillaise upbringing, and a French physiotherapist of Polish ancestry.
“Even with Mbappe, no Algerian will support France,” the barber said after the quarter-finals. Twelve days later, France having beaten Belgium with Mbappe again in sparkling form, there was a subtle change of heart: “They played well. Let the best team win the cup.”
And in the Mediterranean resort of Le Lavandou, the physiotherapist, Francois Klukaszewski, who refuses appointments clashing with France’s games, said: “There’s a festive atmosphere, something that helps to overcome racism, jihadism and other problems to bring us together.
“You see the black-blanc-beur ethos even in small teams around the country, with people of all backgrounds happily playing together. Let’s hope it lasts longer than in 1998.”
There is an ominous sense of purpose about the France who have just booked their place in the country’s third World Cup in their last six attempts.
Because this is France, the order and professionalism of their football, the way they have paced themselves though the tournament will be particularly praised and noted.
Because this is France, the World Cup peaks seem all the higher because they are set against deep troughs.
Suffice to report that the new favourites to win Sunday’s World Cup final are nothing like the rabble who went on strike eight years ago in South Africa, or the gifted, but limp defending champions who wheezed home with one point from three matches from the 2002 World Cup.
Their dispatching of perhaps Belgium’s best-ever team in Saint Petersburg was utterly efficient.
France absorbed early pressure and nullified Romelu Lukaku, the most menacing goalscorer of the so-called Belgian “Golden Generation”.
They kept Eden Hazard largely in check, and either found Kevin de Bruyne on a night when his radar was slightly wonky, or hassled and restricted him enough that he had to reset his radar.
And, just as significant, French players won many aerial duels against Marouane Fellaini.
For that, applause to Paul Pogba, who lent his authority to France’s defensive work and to the central defensive pairing who have through the past month provided a large body of evidence that whoever meets the French in Moscow on Sunday will need to be nimble, strong and ingenious to find a way past Samuel Umtiti and Rafa Varane.
The Barcelona centre-back Umtiti, who scored the winning goal by glancing in an Antoine Griezmann corner early in the second half, and the Real Madrid commander of the back four Varane, are beginning to look as authoritative as the Barca-Madrid pairing of Gerard Pique and Sergio Ramos used to be when Spain were winning all the major titles with defenders picked from either side of the Catalan-Castille rivalry.
If it is to be the Croatia of Real’s Luka Modric and Barca’s Ivan Rakitic that France take on in the final, then the Croatian creators will certainly have to up their game.
If England come through the second semi-final, then they will be aware that, however efficient they imagine they are from set-pieces, France also have a knack with them.
Umtiti connected with his header ahead of the formidable Fellaini to put France ahead; Varane had scored the opening goal in the previous round, a header to crush Uruguayan hopes by connecting with a Griezmann free-kick.
Hugo Lloris made an outstanding save to keep out a Toby Alderweireld drive. The goalkeeper’s form is strengthening as well, after a spectacular intervention against Uruguay.
All this will give Didier Deschamps, who is now 90 minutes or little more from joining a very select group who have won a World Cup as a player and manager, reasons for optimism.
He was the captain in 1998 for his country’s only triumph in the competition.
He is the coach who can now trace a steady rise from the nadir of 2010, two different managers ago. Deschamps reached the quarter-final in Brazil in 2014 with a young, emerging Pogba and Griezmann in his squad.
His France then finished with a silver medal two summers ago at the 2016 European Championship.
They were hosts then, and favourites. They will be favourites on Sunday unless England or Croatia produce something epoch-defining effort in the second semi-final.
France also have a footballer who may define an era to come. The 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe provided perhaps the most thrilling moment of a taut contest.
His manoeuvre, combining a double backheel, from one foot to the other, and then a pass played behind him with the sole of his boot to Olivier Giroud was extraordinary, an innovation that really needs its own fresh term of description.
He had also set up two the best first-half chances with passes to Giroud and Benjamin Pavard.
There were his habitual bursts of searing pace, too. And at the end, a teenager’s exuberant declaration of intent. “I don’t care about Ballons d’Or,” Mbappe said.
“I just want the World Cup. I want to sleep in bed with that trophy.”