France national football team

France

Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)	Les Bleus (The Blues)
Association	French Football Federation (Fédération Française de Football)
Head coach	Raymond Domenech, 2004-
Most caps	Lilian Thuram (117)
Top scorer	Michel Platini (41)
First colours Second colours
First international
Belgium 3 - 3 France (Brussels, Belgium; 1 May, 1904)
Biggest win
France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan (Paris, France; 6 September, 1995)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 17 - 1 France (London, England; 19 October, 1908)
World Cup
Appearances	12 (first in 1930)
Best result	Winners, 1998
European Championship
Appearances	6 (first in 1960)
Best result	Winners, 1984 and 2000

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
	1984 Los Angeles	Team
	1920 Antwerp	Team
	1900 Paris	Team

The France national football team is a European football team among the top sides in international football today.

France came third in the

. The generation of Michel Platini and others came fourth in 1982, and third in 1986. In between, they won the European Championship in 1984. France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zidane and others. This team played in the semifinals of (edit conflict × 96), two years later hosted and won the

, and two years later won Template:Ec2. Ranked as favourites, this team's performance in the

was dismal, not winning a single game, nor scoring a goal. Despite this they were still the favourites to win Template:Ec2, but were beaten in the quarter-finals by the eventual surprise winners Greece.

World Cup record

• 1930 - Round 1
• 1934 - Round 1
• 1938 - Quarterfinals
• 1950 - Did not qualify
• 1954 - Round 1
• 1958 - Third place
• 1962 - Did not qualify
• 1966 - Round 1
• 1970 - Did not qualify
• 1974 - Did not qualify
• 1978 - Round 1
• 1982 - Fourth place
• 1986 - Third place
• 1990 - Did not qualify
• 1994 - Did not qualify
• 1998 - Champions
• 2002 - Round 1
• 2006 - Qualified For Round Of 16

European Championship record

• 1960 - Fourth place
• 1964 to 1980 - Did not qualify
• 1984 - Champions
• 1988 - Did not qualify
• 1992 - Round 1
• 1996 - Semifinals
• 2000 - Champions
• 2004 - Quarterfinals

Famous players

Manuel Amoros Joël Bats Patrick Battiston Larbi Ben Barek Laurent Blanc Basile Boli Maxime Bossis Eric Cantona Pierre Chayriguès Djibril Cissé Julien Darui Lilian Thuram Michel Platini Marcel Desailly Didier Deschamps Jules Dewaquez Jean Djorkaeff Youri Djorkaeff Jean-Francois Domergue

Luis Fernández Just Fontaine Lucien Gamblin Bernard Genghini Thierry Henry Raymond Kopa Bixente Lizarazu Jean-Pierre Papin Emmanuel Petit Robert Pirès Lilian Thuram Marius Trésor David Trézéguet Patrick Vieira Zinedine Zidane

2006 World Cup squad

Head coach: Raymond Domenech

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club
1	1GK	Mickaël Landreau	14 May 1979	3	Paris Saint-Germain
2	2DF	Jean-Alain Boumsong	14 December 1979	19	Newcastle United F.C.
3	2DF	Éric Abidal	11 July 1979	9	Lyon
4	3MF	Patrick Vieira	23 June 1976	88	Juventus F.C.
5	2DF	William Gallas	17 August 1977	41	Chelsea F.C.
6	3MF	Claude Makélélé	18 February 1973	44	Chelsea F.C.
7	3MF	Florent Malouda	13 June 1980	13	Lyon
8	3MF	Vikash Dhorasoo	10 October 1973	17	Paris Saint-Germain
9	4FW	Sidney Govou	27 July 1979	19	Lyon
10	3MF	Zinedine Zidane (captain)	23 June 1972	103	Real Madrid
11	4FW	Sylvain Wiltord	10 May 1974	81	Lyon
12	4FW	Thierry Henry	17 August 1977	79	Arsenal F.C.
13	2DF	Mikael Silvestre	9 August 1977	39	Manchester United F.C.
14	4FW	Louis Saha	8 August 1978	10	Manchester United F.C.
15	2DF	Lilian Thuram	1 January 1972	117	Juventus F.C.
16	1GK	Fabien Barthez	28 June 1971	81	Marseille / Free agent
17	2DF	Gaël Givet	9 October 1981	11	AS Monaco FC
18	3MF	Alou Diarra	15 July 1981	9	RC Lens
19	2DF	Willy Sagnol	18 March 1977	39	Bayern Munich
20	4FW	David Trézéguet	15 October 1977	63	Juventus F.C.
21	2DF	Pascal Chimbonda	21 February 1979	1	Wigan Athletic
22	3MF	Franck Ribéry	1 April 1983	4	Marseille
23	1GK	Grégory Coupet	31 December 1972	18	Lyon

Injured players

No. 9 Djibril Cissé will miss the World Cup due to a broken leg suffered in the friendly between France Vs China. Sidney Govou was announced as his replacement on June 8, 2006. [1]

Tentative starting line-up and formation

• http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/01/17/profile.france/index.html
• 4-4-2

F. Barthez
# 16

W. Sagnol
# 19

L. Thuram
# 15

W. Gallas
# 5

E. Abidal
# 3

C. Makélélé
# 6

F. Ribéry
# 22

P. Vieira
# 4

Z. Zidane
# 10

T. Henry
# 12

D. Trézéguet
# 20

Player records

Most capped French players

As of June 24, 2006, the ten players with the most caps for France are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Lilian Thuram*	1994 - Present	117	2
2	Marcel Desailly	1993 - 2004	116	3
3	Zinedine Zidane*	1994 - Present	104	28
4	Didier Deschamps	1989 - 2000	103	4
5	Laurent Blanc	1989 - 2000	97	16
	Bixente Lizarazu	1992 - 2004	97	2
7	Patrick Vieira*	1997 - Present	89	5
8	Manuel Amoros	1982 - 1992	83	1
	Fabien Barthez*	1994 - Present	83
10	Youri Djorkaeff	1993 - 2002	82	28

Members of the 1998 World Cup-winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Top France goalscorers

Main article: List of leading goalscorers for the French national football team

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Michel Platini	1976 - 87	41 (72)
2	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	35 (81)
	David Trezeguet*	1998 - Present	32 (65)
4	Just Fontaine	1953 - 60	30 (21)
	Jean-Pierre Papin	1986 - 1995	30 (54)
6	Youri Djorkaeff	1993 - 2002	28 (82)
	Zinedine Zidane*	1994 - Present	28 (104)
8	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - Present	26 (83)
9	Jean Vincent	1953 - 61	22 (46)
10	Jean Nicolas	1933 - 38	21 (25)

Members of the 1998 World Cup-winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Coaches

Before 1955, players were selected by committee.

• Albert Batteux (1955-1962)
• Henri Guérin (1962-1966)
• José Arribas and Jean Snella (1966)
• Just Fontaine (1967)
• Louis Dugauguez (1967-1968)
• Georges Boulogne (1969-1973)
• Stefan Kovacs (1973-1975)
• Michel Hidalgo (1976-1984)
• Henri Michel (1984-1988)
• Michel Platini (1988-1992)
• Gérard Houllier (1992-1993)
• Aimé Jacquet (1993-1998)
• Roger Lemerre (1998-2002)
• Jacques Santini (2002-2004)
• Raymond Domenech (2004-)

See also

• French Guiana national football team
• Guadeloupe national football team
• Martinique national football team
• Mayotte national football team
• New Caledonia national football team
• Réunion national football team
• Saint-Martin national football team
• Tahiti national football team

External links

• France World Cup News 2006
• 1998 France World Cup
• Coca-Cola World Cup Cans form France
• RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
• RSSSF archive of coaches 1960-