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Background
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France are at the moment, THE best team in the World. They are currently the World Cup Champions, the European Championship Champions and the Confederations Cup Champions. So not bad going then!! |
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| Squad | |
| Goalkeepers | |
| Fabien Barthez | Manchester United |
| Gregory Coupet | Olympique Lyon |
| Ulrich Rame | Girondins Bordeaux |
| Defenders | |
| Vincent Candela | Roma |
| Philippe Christanval | Barcelona |
| Marcel Desailly | Chelsea |
| Christophe Dugarry | Girondins Bordeaux |
| Franck Leboeuf | Olympique Marseille |
| Bixente Lizarazu | Bayern Munich |
| Willy Sagnol | Bayern Munich |
| Mikael Silvestre | Manchester United |
| Lilian Thuram | Juventus |
| Midfielders | |
| Alain Boghossian | Parma |
| Claude Makelele | Real Madrid |
| Johan Micoud | Parma |
| Emmanuel Petit | Chelsea |
| Patrick Vieira | Arsenal |
| Zinedine Zidane | Real Madrid |
| Strikers | |
| Djibril Cisse | AJ Auxerre |
| Youri Djorkaeff | Bolton Wanderers |
| Thierry Henry | Arsenal |
| David Trezeguet | Juventus |
| Sylvain Wiltord | Arsenal |
| History | |
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The origins of football in France go back to 1872 with the birth of Havre Athlétique Club, the first registered club on French territory. Rapidly, the movement spread to Paris and soon afterwards all of France. In 1894 the first official competition was organised, rather optimistically called “Championnat de France” even though only six clubs participated over a period of four weeks and only one French player actually took part. A decade later, on 1 May 1904, the French national team played their first match, drawing 3-3 with Belgium. Slowly, football became more structured. In 1906, the Comité Français Interfédéral, under the patronage of the Fédération Gymnique et Sportive des Patronages de France Fédération and the Fédération Cycliste et Athlétique Française was born. The CFI, whose president was Charles Simon – after whom the Coupe de France is named - and general secretary Henri Delaunay, was a forerunner of today’s Fédération Française de Football. In 1910, the CFI was admitted within FIFA, which had been founded in 1904 by a Frenchman, Robert Guérin. The Fédération Française de Football was founded on 7 April 1919, with Jules Rimet (who later founded the FIFA World Cup) its president and Henri Delaunay its general secretary. From the very beginning, the Fédération Française de Football was very successful and the result was that football became the most popular sport in the country within a short space of time. Today, under the presidency of Claude Simonet, approximately 2,150,00 licensed players and 21,000 clubs participate in the competitions of the FFF. Every year, more than one million matches are being played. France’s footballers have enjoyed much success over the last decade. Olympique de Marseille won the UEFA Champions League in 1993, while Paris St-Germain won the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1996. On the international stage, France won the European Championship in 1984, a year in which they also won gold at the Los Angeles Olympics. The French enjoyed their finest hour in 1998, winning the FIFA World Cup for the first time.
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