Team France: 9 best anecdotes about the Blues at the World Cup

1958: Just Fontaine scores 13 goals in teammate’s shoes

A record that seems impossible to beat or even equal. At the 1958 World Cup held in Sweden, Just Fontaine scored 13 goals for the Blues in the final stage of the World Cup. Playing for the Grand Stade de Reims, the striker scored a hat-trick against Paraguay in the first game, a double against Yugoslavia in the second game, a goal against Scotland in the third game, and a double against Northern Ireland in the quarterfinals. – the final, a goal against Brazil in the semi-finals, and finally a foursome against FRG in the third place match, which the French won.

13 goals that Just Fontaine managed to put together without even wearing his own shoes, because the striker’s boots became unusable after training the day before the match. Thus, Just Fontaine is making history with his team-mate Stéphane Bruey.

1978 : Michel Hidalgo was the victim of the attempted kidnapping

The French team is returning to the World Cup after 12 years for this World Cup held in Argentina. The competition takes place in a certain context, due to the dictatorship imposed by General Videla, the head of the military junta since the coup two years ago. However, in France, Michel Hidalgo will be the victim of a kidnapping attempt.

The man who was appointed as Blues coach in 1976 realizes he is being followed as he prepares to board the train from Bordeaux to Paris. South West : “A white car behind me hit me, then passed me, forcing me to stop. Three men came, one with a beard, I think, with a gun. I went down. He pointed the gun at my back, the person who looked like the leader forced me to walk along the road. We go for a walk in the forest.“At last, Michel Hidalgo manages to get rid of his escaped attackers.I realized later that the gun was not loaded. They were unprofessional, I’ve never disarmed a man but it wasn’t hard and I don’t get any credit for doing it.“Fear more than harm…

1978: Blues play in green

A color that the French team is not used to wearing. The already eliminated Blues have to play their last game in the group stage against again eliminated Hungary, when both teams come out of the locker room to realize that they are both wearing white jerseys. The fault was with Henri Patrelle, the then EDF officer, who forgot that the French team had to play in the blue that day. Worse still, the blue swimsuits were forgotten 400 km later at the French hotel in Buenos Aires. Hungary then offered the French to play in the red away jersey. The problem is that the Hungarian goalkeeper, dressed in this colour, refuses to change.

The day France played with fisherman’s jerseys

1978 World Cup in Argentina.
France-Hungary 22 players wear the same white tunic.
The Kimberley club, a small suburban club founded by fishermen, lends their white and green striped jerseys to France. pic.twitter.com/jSPInpROPL

– Vibrons Foot (@VibronsFoot) 8 May 2019

A few people quickly set off on a motorcycle in search of a match kit in the center of the city of Mar del Plata. The rescuers successfully return from their journey in white and green striped tops from the fishermen’s Club Atlético Kimberley team. Colors that will be good for the players of Michel Hidalgo, who scored 3 to 1 in this match without a bet.

1982: The Kuwaiti sheikh’s goal was disallowed by the French team.

This is called diplomatic arbitration. Before the trauma in Sevilla, the French team suffered another setback during the World Cup in Spain. Going against modest Kuwait for their second group match after losing to England, the Blues certainly didn’t expect to experience a story like this. The choice of Michel Hidalgo logically increases 3 goals to 1, while Alain Giresse manages to score 4 goals.^to goal in 80^to It’s not too late for Kuwaiti players who think they’ve been fooled by the whistles from the stands.

Sheikh Fahad al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, brother of the Emir of Kuwait, descended from the stands in complete confusion, asking his country’s players to leave the turf. The referee of the match, Myroslav Stupar, then exchanges views with the Kuwaiti leader and, surprising everyone, decides to cancel the goal. A decision that knocked down Michel Hidalgo, who was repelled by the Guardia Civil and prevented him from entering the turf. Finally, France wins 4 against 1 goal and Myroslav Stupar is sacked for life by FIFA.

1998: Zinédine Zidane, the first Frenchman expelled from the World Cup

Zinédine Zidane certainly made a difference in 1998. In the second group match played by the French team against Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Blues left his boots on Saudi captain Fuad Amin and became the author of the ugly mistake. The referee does not hesitate and throws the number 10 out of the game, who is also penalized for two games. The French team attending its 10th event^to Zinédine Zidane became the first French player in history to receive a red card at the World Cup. “Zizou” will lead, as later Laurent Blanc was ejected in the semi-finals against Croatia, while Marcel Desailly was shown a red card in the final against Brazil.

2006: Jacques Chirac went to see Zinédine Zidane after he had a headache.

“Zizou” sees red again in the middle of the World Cup. The blues star goes crazy this time in the final against Italy. Following insults and provocations by defender Marco Materazzi, Zinedine Zidane loses himself and delivers a violent headshot to the Italian player’s chest. at 110^to In the last minute of the match, the French lover was dismissed and ended his career on a bad note, while France later lost to Italy on penalties.

This is legendary!!!! President Jacques Chirac France – Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final pic.twitter.com/QvCaKNVeyJ

— Christopher Petit (@chris269804) September 26, 2019

Jacques Chirac, though not a football expert, had a special relationship with the France team due to some cult moments, especially the famous announcement of the players before the final against Brazil in 1998. The Republic took its place in the stands of the Olympic stadium in Berlin. After the defeat against Italy, Jacques Chirac isolates himself with Zidane and exchanges ideas with him after the headbutt, as Ouest-France recounted in his columns in 2010: “In 2002, I will not have the opportunity to go to South Korea and Japan. Four years from now, the World Cup in Germany will offer me the opportunity to follow an extraordinary path that, under the circumstances as we know it, ended by a twist of fate. After the lost final, I will have a private meeting with Zinedine Zidane in the locker room. An intense exchange. An exchange I remember. An exchange with a wounded man whom I have had great respect for for over a decade.“

2010: Knysna Strike

This is definitely the moment when the French team has found itself at its lowest level in its history. In South Africa, the Blues are getting off to a rough start to the tournament with a draw with Uruguay. After that, the galleys are tied together with a loss against Mexico in the second match (2-0). Two days after this defeat, the newspaper Set He made a so-called statement made by Nicolas Anelka about Raymond Domenech at half-time from the front page of the game, namely “fuck you son of a bitchThe words have since been refuted by the Blues’ former coach, assuring that the attacker would throw: “You just have to build your own shitty team!“

Following this incident, Nicolas Anelka was excluded from the election. A decision that the other players of the French team, who decided to go on strike, did not accept. The image travels the world: he gets back on the blues buses and refuses to train. Patrice Évra, then captain of the EDF, is close to punching Robert Duverne, then physical trainer, in front of journalists’ cameras. France will continue their debacle by losing to the modest team of South Africa (2-1) in their last match.

2018: Adil Rami and extinguisher

In the round of 16 of the Russian World Cup, France scored 4 on 3 against Argentina after a crazy match. As Adil Rami said, a victory sensibly celebrated by the tricolor players TF1 After the competition in 2018: “When we returned, we started singing in the corridors with the atmosphere. Like the truth, I put on my headphones, was naked, and played Fortnite in my bedroom. She was singing in the hallways, singing, and men were banging room to room to wake her up. I felt the storm coming towards me. If anyone has the misfortune of opening his door, he will not be able to clean up his beds, belongings, etc. they reversed. I had a fire extinguisher in my room. Safety, you never know, against kids. Then I go out to see what’s going on, Ben Mendy slams the door with his foot. Then he shouted and said “come, we will put the case in Adil Rami’s room”. I ran, turned on the fire extinguisher, and when they came back, it’s the ghost hunter. Frankly, I was scared because when I saw the extent of this stupidity, I said to myself: “Ji will be fired “.

Thereupon, the security intervenes in the hotel due to the toxic fumes coming out of the fire extinguisher and evacuates the hotel. As Didier Deschamps said, it was far from smiling at the time. Provence : “I’m not hiding from you that I went to pull the straps. They were a hundred meters away and I heard them say: ” We are all together, no one, 23! » I started walking and wondered if I had ever been in a situation like this when I was an actor. I came, looked at them and said nothing. Well.“

2022: France welcomed by a crowd of Indian supporters in Qatar

New World Cup and new extraordinary anecdote for the blues. Upon his arrival at his hotel on 16 November, the French team received a warm welcome. In front of its base camp, EDF could indeed see that many Indians were fans of the reigning world champions. The Indian community is quite present in Qatar with around 700,000 citizens.

Olivier Giroud, who was present at the press conference he held with his teammates the day after his arrival in Qatar, did not hide his surprise at these scenes of joy in the emirate: “A very pleasant surprise. It was late, it was time for dinner. It’s always nice to feel so welcome. We weren’t able to greet the fans outside but we were very well received in the hotel lobby. It reminded me a bit of Russia where people are very warm.“Same thing for pressing the tricolor striker:”I didn’t know the Indians supported the France team. A weight given how many there are… a billion? (smile).“To see if the new fans of the Blues can bring luck to the French team in Qatar!

Benoit Lesueur