I always considered French soccer to be one of the
strongest around and I always enjoyed seeing the France national side
play, since they always have a unique combination of physical prowess
and technique in their style.
Looking over France's international cup achievements I noticed they had
a lot of ups and downs, combining periods of great success with huge
downfalls where they didn't even manage to qualify to the World Cup or
the European Championship.
Nevertheless, the French national soccer team deserves a section of its
own and I decided to focus on their national team, since it brought the
most important successes in French soccer history: 1 World Cup win (and
a couple more silver and bronze medals) and two European Championships.
But before going deeper and analyzing French soccer in detail, let me
give you a short preview of what you can find in this section:
France
National Soccer Team
Like I said earlier, with French clubs having failed to dominate
European competitions, it was up to the French national soccer team to
hold the flag up high. And that it did, although a bit later than
expected.
With a history that started at the very beginning of the 20th century,
the France national soccer team alternated periods of success (like
reaching the quarter finals in the 1938 World Cup, or obtaining the
Bronze medal in the 1958 edition) with poor qualification stages,
failing to get to the World Cup 6 times.
The most important "eras" in the life of the French football team were
those under Michel Platini (when France won the European Championship
in 1984 and managed to get to the World Cup semi-finals twice, in 1982
and 1986) and Zinedine Zidane (France won the World Cup for the first
time under Zidane's time, won a second European Championship in 2000
and got another World Cup final in 2006). But you can read more about
this in the full article. Click
here to read more...
Famous
French Soccer Players
France had some magnificent players throughout time, some of which are
truly worthy of a close-up. I focused this article on 5 players that
truly made history for France, namely Michel Platini, Thierry Henry,
Eric Cantona, Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps.
Each marked his time with the French national side, with Michel Platini
bringing them the first international success (the 1984 European
Championship) almost single handedly and Zinedine Zidane, Didier
Deschamps and Thierry Henry contributing heavily to France's 98-2000
World Cup and European Championship wins.
Although France did not win any major trophy during the "Cantona era",
he's still a remarkable player and a major reference in French football
history.
There are several other important French players worth mentioning, such
as Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly, Luis Fernandez, Jean Tigana, Just
Fontaine, Jean Pierre Papin or Alain Giresse, but I considered the
above-mentioned five as "generals", whereas these guys were mostly
"lieutenants" playing around them.
Click here to read more...
Looking over France's international cup achievements I noticed they had
a lot of ups and downs, combining periods of great success with huge
downfalls where they didn't even manage to qualify to the World Cup or
the European Championship. 