For generations, France was a poor cousin of European soccer powers Germany, Italy, England and Spain until an improbable team of multiethnic background roared into the spotlight at the 1998 World Cup, held on home soil. The children of African immigrants joined with a special generation of Gallic players to put Les Bleus on the victory stand. The roots of French soccer go back more than a century before the epic performance in '98.
Early Years
The Middle Ages saw primitive forms of soccer played in France, including la cohoule, la soule and la barette. Modern soccer arose in Victorian England and crossed the English Channel. The first French soccer club to form was Le Havre Athletic Club, an overnight boat ride from Southampton, in 1872. Expatriate Englishmen and Scots founded soccer clubs in Paris in 1891, and Bordeaux, with commercial ties to England, followed suit. By 1904, a French national team played its first official game in Brussels against Belgium, playing to a 3-3 tie. Also in 1904, France became one of seven founding members of FIFA.
Organizers
World War I bought soccer to soldiers from rural areas, taught the game by comrades from port cities and Paris. The Coupe de France, modeled on England's FA Cup, for club teams to contest, came into existence in 1917, and the French Football Federation or "Trois F" formed in 1919. Its first president was Jules Rimet, who in 1921 also took over the presidency of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer. In 1928, Rimet, whose name ended up on the World Cup winner's trophy, encouraged FIFA to create the World Cup, which kicked off in 1930. France hosted the third World Cup in 1938 and the first European Nations Championship or Euro in 1960.
Growing Interest
Despite individual flair and technical skill, and players such as Eric Cantona who flourished at Manchester United, for decades France's underachievers could not get past the powers of Europe, achieving only a third-place finish in the 1958 World Cup. In the 1970s, France addressed the problem by creating training centers at its professional clubs, and national interest in the sport began to build. In 1984, France won the Euro and the gold medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles, followed by a third-place finish in the 1986 World Cup. In 1992, France earned the 1998 World Cup.
France '98
The French team, led by midfielder Zinedine Zidane who scored two headers, powered past Brazil in the World Cup final 3-0 on July 12, 2008, spurring a jubilant crowd of a million to take to the streets of Paris and celebrate. Zidane and his World Cup teammates Didier Deschamps, Emmanuel Petit, Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly, Fabian Barthez, Nicolas Anelka and Thierry Henry also captured the 2000 Euro. Zidane was part of the French that lost to Italy in the 2006 World Cup final.
Statistics Snapshot
As of 2011, France had qualified for 13 out of 19 World Cups. The "Trois F" reports more than 2 million soccer players registered in the country, including nearly 56,000 women. Twenty professional clubs participate in the top league, Ligue 1, and 20 more in Ligue 2. The federation overseas a million matches per year, in 31 regional leagues, including nine in overseas departments of France.
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