France national football team

1 (December 1984-April 1985
August 1985
February-June 1986
July 1998-March 1999
June 2000-May 2002
September 2003-August 2004
August 2006-October 2006
February 2007
June 2007-July 2007)

Lowest Elo ranking

44 (May 1928
February 1930)





Home colours





Away colours

First international

Belgium 3 - 3 France

(Brussels, Belgium; 1 May 1904)

Biggest win

France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan

(Auxerre, France; 6 September 1995)

Biggest defeat

Denmark 17 - 1 France

(London, England; 22 October 1908)

World Cup

Appearances

12 (First in 1930)

Best result

Winners, 1998

European Championship

Appearances

7 (First in 1960)

Best result

Winners, 1984 and 2000

Confederations Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 2001)

Best result

Winners, 2001 and 2003

Men's Football
Olympic medal record
Silver	1900 Paris	Team
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	Team

The French football team represents the nation of France in international football competitions. The team is considered one of the top sides in international football, and has been especially successful over the past decade, winning the World Cup as the host nation in 1998, as well as placing second in the Germany 2006 tournament. Within that time frame, France also won Euro 2000. The team is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.

France's first ever game was a 3-3 draw against Belgium in 1904. They played in all three of the pre-World War II World Cups. Lucien Laurent scored the first ever World cup goal in 1930, in a 4-1 win over Mexico. They reached the quarterfinals in 1938 when they hosted the World Cup.

France came third in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, defeating Germany 6-3 for the bronze. France was beaten by Brazil in semi-finals, after central defender Robert Jonquet's injury and Pelé hat-trick. Striker Just Fontaine scored a record 13 goals in the tournament, doing so in just six matches. The team used mainly players and former players from Stade de Reims, such as Raymond Kopa, Robert Jonquet, Roger Marche or Just Fontaine, who was at the time one of the best teams in European football.

During the captaincy of Michel Platini France's World Cup performance markedly improved, finishing fourth in Spain '82, and third in Mexico '86. In both tournaments, they lost in the semi-finals to West Germany. The 1982 semi-final is infamously remembered by many for West German keeper Harald Schumacher's elbowing of France's Patrick Battiston in the face as the latter made a shot on goal. Despite severely injuring Battiston, Schumacher was not penalized. France were unfairly knocked out in 1986 and with Platini, now recognized as one of football's all time greats they could have won. It was a very good generation of French football players though and they won the Euro in 84 which was France's greatest achievement up to that point. With Platini as skipper, France, as host nation, won Euro '84, as well as capturing Olympic gold in Los Angeles the same year.

Having made his international début against West Germany in August 1987, Eric Cantona was the favourite of Michel Platini, now France team manager, who claimed that Cantona would be selected as long as he was playing competitive top class football. However, France failed to qualify for Euro 1988 despite being the defending champions. Cantona was then suspended from internationals for a year after he insulted the French national team manager on television in August 1988. France failed to win a single game in the European Championship, held in Sweden in 1992, despite the striking partnership of Cantona and Jean-Pierre Papin. Platini resigned after Euro 92 and was succeeded by Gérard Houllier.

France then failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA, after losing the final game 2-1 at home to Bulgaria when a draw would suffice. During the match, David Ginola lost the ball which led to Bulgaria's winning goal by Emil Kostadinov. Gérard Houllier resigned and Aimé Jacquet was made the manager of the national team, but only provisionally. After a promising series of friendly matches (notably a victory over Italy in Naples in February 1994), and the debut of Zinedine Zidane versus the Czech Republic national football team in August 1994, his provisional status was upgraded to permanent.

Jacquet began to rebuild the national team in preparation for Euro 96 and appointed Cantona as the captain. Jacquet initially selected Eric Cantona as captain and made him the team's playmaker. Cantona had successfully restarted his career in the FA Premier League and was playing some of the best football of his career, but he kicked a Crystal Palace fan in January 1995, which earned him a year-long suspension from all international matches.

As Cantona was the key playmaker, Jacquet was forced to make major changes to the team in the wake of his suspension. Jacquet revamped the squad with some new blood and built it around Zinedine Zidane, while dropping Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola. Jacquet's choice of players for the tournament caused some fans to grit their teeth but he succeeded in helping France qualify for the Euro 96.

Making it all the way to the semi-finals of Euro 96 before being eliminated in a penalty shootout, this marked France's best showing in an international tournament since the 1986 World Cup. More importantly, Les Bleus managed to show they could survive without veterans such as Jean-Pierre Papin, Eric Cantona, or David Ginola. Jacquet himself stated that the team had done well without Cantona, and that he wanted to keep faith with the players who had taken them so far.^[1]

France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zinédine Zidane and the emergence of Thierry Henry. This team started off well by reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96. After Euro 96, Jacquet adopted a very defensive strategy and made fans anxious because his team never seemed to develop a definitive offensive tactic. The press began to attack the team manager, calling his methods "Paleolithic" and claiming that the team had no hope for the upcoming World Cup which would be hosted in their home country. In June 1997 at the Tournament of France, cries of "Resign!" could be heard from the stadium as the French team came in under Brazil, England and Italy. The media's distrust of Jacquet reached fever pitch in May 1998 when, instead of a list of 22 players meant to play in the World Cup, Jacquet gave a list of 28 players, causing the sports daily L'Équipe to write an editoral arguing that Jacquet was not the right man to lead the French team to victory. However Jacquet was about to mastermind French football's greatest ever achievement.

BARTHEZ

BLANC

DESAILLY

THURAM

LIZARAZU

DJORKAEFF

ZIDANE

DESCHAMPS

PETIT

GUIVARC'H

DUGARRY

France lineup during the 1998 World Cup

However, all that would change when the team began to play in the group stage of the 1998 World Cup. It was clear that though the team was far from being the most flamboyant in French history, it was a perfectly well-oiled machine that neither injury, nor expulsions, nor suspensions, managed to stop.

Lilian Thuram and Marcel Desailly were linchpins of the best defense in the tournament, conceding only 2 goals in seven matches. France swept their group, then defeated Paraguay 1-0 with a Golden Goal from Laurent Blanc. In the quarter-finals, they edged Italy in a penalty shootout after both teams were tied 0-0. Though they fell behind for the first time in the tournament to Croatia, Thuram scored two goals in France's comeback semi-final win. He laughs when recalling this match because these were the first two and may be the last two international goals the defender will ever score. The overall defence consisting of Thuram, Desailly, Blanc and Bixente Lizarazu was extremely strong often impenitrable.

The crowning moment of their glory was when they soundly defeated the defending champions Brazil 3-0 in the World Cup Final. In the first half, taking advantage of poor Brazilian marking at defensive set pieces, Zinédine Zidane scored two headed goals from France's corner kicks[1]. Brazil was unable to find the net despite Desailly getting sent off and Emmanuel Petit added a third goal in the last minute of regular time to seal the victory for France. France's inaugural triumph also made them the first host in 20 years to win the World Cup. An estimated one million people took to the Paris streets to celebrate that night.

Jacquet stepped down after France's World Cup triumph and was succeeded by assistant Roger Lemerre who guided them through Euro 2000. Zidane cemented his FIFA World Player of the Year form, scoring a direct free kick in the quarter-final against Spain and a golden goal penalty in the semi-final against Portugal.

In the finals, France defeated Italy 2-1 in a come from behind victory. David Trezeguet scored the golden goal in extra time after an equalizing goal from Wiltord. This gave them the distinction of being the first national team to hold both the World Cup and Euro titles since West Germany did so in 1974, and it was also the first time that a reigning World Cup winner went on to capture the Euro[2]. France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001-2002.

France failed to maintain that pace in subsequent tournaments. They suffered a stunning first round elimination in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, possibly due in part to an injury to key playmaker Zidane. One of the greatest shocks in World Cup history condemned France to a 0-1 defeat to debutante Senegal in the opening game of the tournament. After France had finished bottom of the group with only securing one point, conceding three goals and without scoring any, Lemerre was dismissed.

A full strength team started out strongly in Euro 2004, with Zidane scoring a free kick and a penalty to overcome a 0-1 deficit and defeat England in the group stage, but they were upset in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners, Greece. Jacques Santini resigned as coach and Raymond Domenech was picked as his replacement.

France struggled in the qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, even though the team was seeded in a group that included the relatively unheralded teams of Israel, Switzerland and the Faroe Islands. This prompted Domenech to persuade "golden generation" members Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zinédine Zidane out of international retirement to help the national team qualify. This was France's first successful World Cup qualification since 1986 (France received automatic berths in 1998 and 2002, as hosts and defending champions, respectively).

The team was greeted with modest expectations as it entered the World Cup tournament, with many arguing that despite the return of the three stars, its squad was too old to be competitive. They had a slow start in the group stage and were in danger of being eliminated after managing only 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Switzerland and South Korea, respectively. Though Zidane was forced to sit out because of accumulated bookings, France found their form and won their final group match, beating Togo 2-0 to advance to the knockout round. There, Zidane would score or assist in every game of the playoffs and his team upset heavily favoured Spain 3-1 in a come-from-behind victory to advance to the quarter-finals.

France eliminated Ludovic Giuly's team-mate Ronaldinho and the top-ranked, defending champions Brazil 1-0 to advance into the cup semi-finals. Despite the score, France had thoroughly outplayed Brazil in the match, only facing one shot on goal, while Zidane created numerous scoring chances with his dribbles past Brazilian defenders and his free-kick to Thierry Henry resulting in the winning goal. The game made France the first team to have shut out the five-time champions in consecutive matches; Fabien Barthez was the keeper in both matches. Les Bleus now have a 2-1-1 all-time record against Brazil in World Cup finals play, having shut the Seleção out in the last three meetings (the 1986 match was decided 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw).

France emerged from the semi-finals winning 1-0 over Portugal. Henry was tripped inside the box and a penalty was awarded, which Zidane scored and it stood as the winning goal, as defender Lilian Thuram neutralized offensive threats from Portuguese stars Pauleta and Cristiano Ronaldo. At home, when news came of France's victory, there were mass celebrations at the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.

France took on Italy in the final, but the teams were level at 1-1 at the end of normal time. With extra-time failing to produce a victor, penalty kicks were required to settle the match. Italy won the shoot-out 5-3 to be crowned 2006 World Champions. The tournaments Golden Ball Winner Zinédine Zidane (playing his last professional match) scored the opening goal of the final (becoming only the fourth player to score in two World Cup final games), but his accomplishments in the finals were marred by his sending off (becoming only the fourth player to be sent off in a world cup final) for violent conduct when he headbutted Marco Materazzi with only ten minutes of extra-time remaining.

France started its qualifying round for Euro 2008 on September 2, 2006 by beating Georgia in Tbilisi 3-0.The goal scorers for this match were Malouda, Louis Saha and Malkhaz Asatiani (own goal). They then took on world champions Italy 3-1 in Paris on September 6, 2006 with Sidney Govou striking twice along with Henry, but suffered a huge upset when beaten 1-0 by Scotland on October 7, 2006, their first European Championship qualifying defeat since they lost 3-2 to Russia on June 5, 1999. On October 11, 2006, France defeated Faroe Islands by 5-0. All the French strikers that played in the match scored. Goals came from Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and 2 goals from the Juventus striker David Trezeguet. France beat Lithuania 1-0 on March 24, 2007 with Bolton Wanderers striker Nicolas Anelka rescuing an injury hit French side by shooting a wonderful long range effort.The injuries suffered by France were Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Frank Ribéry, Patrick Vieira,and David Trezeguet. France took on Ukraine on June 2, 2007 in Paris. Both team were hit by injuries with France missing Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry while Ukraine missed their world class striker Andriy Shevchenko.The game ended in a 2-0 victory with second half strikes from Franck Ribéry and Nicolas Anelka who scored his third goal in three matches. Then on June 6, 2007 France defeated Georgia in Auxerre by 1-0, with Samir Nasri scoring his first senior international goal. On September 8, 2007, in a much-anticipated rematch, France and Italy played to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro in Milan. Once again though, on September 12, 2007, France fell to Scotland and were defeated 1-0 after Landreau was caught off guard with a strike from Scotland's James McFadden adding another loss, but this time on their home (Parc des Princes) turf. On the October 12, 2007, Their match with the Faroe Islands, was threatened to be postponed after bad weather kept their plane from landing in the Faroe Islands, they had to spend the night in Norway. The next day however on 13 October 2007, the match went ahead as planned, albeit around 30 minutes after scheduled kick-off time with France taking just 8 minutes to open up a 2-0 lead, the match eventually finished 6-0 with strikes from Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, and 2 goals from Karim Benzema just before half time. In the second half Jerome Rothen and Hatem Ben Arfa completed the rout. With Italy's victory over Scotland on November 17, 2007, France only just, by 2 points over Scotland, qualified for Euro 2008.

On the 2006 French national team, 17 of the 23 players were members of racial minorities, including many of the most prominent players. The team featured players from the overseas departments and players who are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants from former French colonial territories. Zinédine Zidane is the child of an immigrant couple from Algeria. Vikash Dhorasoo — the first French player of Indian origin - played in the 2006 World Cup. Meanwhile, several players are of African or West Indian origin. Patrick Vieira immigrated as a child from Senegal, and Claude Makélélé did likewise from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lilian Thuram and William Gallas are from France's overseas department of Guadeloupe, while Éric Abidal was born in Martinique. Thierry Henry is the son of parents born in Guadeloupe and Martinique, while Louis Saha, Sylvain Wiltord, and Pascal Chimbonda all have parents who hail from Guadeloupe. Finally, Florent Malouda was born in French Guiana.

The French national football team has long reflected the ethnic diversity of the country. The first black player playing in the national team was Raoul Diagne in 1931, the son of the first black African elected to the French National Assembly, Blaise Diagne. In the 1950s, the first French national team reaching international success with a semi-final at the World Cup 1958 already included many sons of immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Roger Piantoni, Maryan Wisnieski or Bernard Chiarelli. This tradition continued through the 1980s, when such successful players as Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Luis Fernandez, Gérard Janvion, Manuel Amoros or Eric Cantona were all of either foreign-born or overseas-born ancestries. Since the 1990s, the team has been widely celebrated as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal.^[2]

In recent years, critics on the far right of the French political spectrum have taken issue with the proportional underrepresentation of white Frenchmen on the team. National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen protested in 1998 that the Black, Blanc, Beur team that won the World Cup did not look sufficiently "French." In 2002, led by Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly, the French team unanimously publicly appealled to the French voting public to reject the presidential candidacy of Le Pen and instead return President Jacques Chirac to office in a landslide. In 2006, Le Pen also resumed his criticism, charging that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players.^[3]

In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused a controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," adding "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." He later excused himself for this comment, which he declared was not meant to be offensive.^[4]

In 2004, a television crew recorded Spanish coach Luis Aragonés motivating Thierry Henry's Arsenal teammate José Antonio Reyes by saying Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda ("Show that you're better than that shitty black"). After an investigation, UEFA fined the RFEF and warned that future incidents would be punished more severely. Henry and Nike began a Stand Up Speak Up campaign against football racism as a result of the incident. Before the start of France's 2006 World Cup second round match against Spain, which France would win 3-1, coach Raymond Domenech claimed that Spanish fans were making racial taunts[3], this however was not proved.

The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the 2006 World Cup final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle to integrate its non-white immigrant population: Even though both players denied it,^[5] international media speculated for days about the presence of a racist element in the exchange,^[6] observing that the Italian team contained no ethnic minorities.^[7]

The national team's overall impact on France's efforts to integrate its minorities and come to terms with its colonial past has been mixed, however. In 2001, France played a friendly match in the Stade de France, site of its 1998 World Cup triumph, against Algeria. It was France's first meeting with its former colony, with whom it had fought a war from 1954-62, and it proved controversial. France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was booed by Algerian supporters before the game, and following a French goal that made the score 4-1 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play and caused the game to be suspended. It was never resumed.

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Round 1	7	3	1	0	2	4	3
1934	Round of 16	9	1	0	0	1	2	3
1938	Quarter-Finals	6	2	1	0	1	4	4
1950	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Round 1	11	2	1	0	1	3	3
1958	Third place	3	6	4	0	2	23	15
1962	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	2	5
1970	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Round 1	-	3	1	0	2	5	5
1982	Fourth place	4	7	3	2	2	16	12
1986	Third place	3	7	4	2	1	12	6
1990	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Winners	1	7	6	1	0	15	2
2002	Round 1	28	3	0	1	2	0	3
2006	Runners-Up	2	7	4	3	0	9	3
Total	12/18	1 Title	51	25	10	16	95	64

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Year	Round
1960	Fourth place
1964	Did not qualify (Quarter-Finals)
1968	Did not qualify (Quarter-Finals)
1972	Did not qualify
1976	Did not qualify
1980	Did not qualify
1984	Winners
1988	Did not qualify
1992	Round 1
1996	Semi-Finals
2000	Winners
2004	Quarter-Finals
2008	Qualified

The following players were called up for the Euro 2008 qualifier match against Ukraine.

Caps and goals as of 13 December, 2007, included Euro 2008 qualifier match against Ukraine.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Mickaël Landreau	14 May 1979 (age 28)	11	0	Paris Saint-Germain
2	DF	Patrice Evra	15 May 1981 (age 26)	9	0	Manchester United
3	DF	Éric Abidal	11 July 1979 (age 28)	31	0	Barcelona
4	MF	Patrick Vieira	23 June 1976 (age 31)	104	6	Inter Milan
5	DF	William Gallas	17 August 1977 (age 30)	59	2	Arsenal
6	MF	Claude Makélélé	18 February 1973 (age 34)	65	0	Chelsea
7	MF	Florent Malouda	13 June 1980 (age 27)	34	3	Chelsea
8	MF	Jérémy Toulalan	10 September 1983 (age 24)	9	0	Lyon
9	FW	Karim Benzema	19 December 1987 (age 19)	8	3	Lyon
10	FW	Sidney Govou	27 July 1979 (age 28)	30	7	Lyon
11	MF	Samir Nasri	20 June 1987 (age 20)	7	2	Marseille
12	FW	Thierry Henry	17 August 1977 (age 30)	97	44	Barcelona
13	DF	François Clerc	18 April 1983 (age 24)	9	0	Lyon
14	MF	Jérôme Rothen	31 March 1978 (age 29)	13	1	Paris Saint-Germain
15	DF	Lilian Thuram	1 January 1972 (age 35)	136	2	Barcelona
16	GK	Sebastien Frey	18 March 1980 (age 27)	1	0	Fiorentina
17	DF	Bakary Sagna	14 February 1983 (age 24)	2	0	Arsenal
18	DF	Sébastien Squillaci	11 August 1980 (age 27)	12	0	Lyon
19	MF	Hatem Ben Arfa	7 March 1987 (age 20)	4	1	Lyon
20	MF	Mathieu Flamini	7 March 1984 (age 23)	8	2	Arsenal
21	MF	Lassana Diarra	10 March 1985 (age 22)	9	0	Arsenal
22	MF	Franck Ribéry	1 April 1983 (age 24)	24	2	Bayern Munich
23	GK	Ulrich Ramé	19 September 1972 (age 35)	12	0	Bordeaux
24	MF	Alou Diarra	15 July 1981 (age 26)	12	0	Bordeaux
39	FW	Nicolas Anelka	14 March 1979 (age 28)	43	11	Bolton Wanderers

The following players have all recently been called up to the France squad. Bracket shows last call-up time.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Goals	Club
20	FW	David Trezeguet	15 October 1977 (age 30)	70	34	Juventus (Euro 2008 qual. v. Italy, 8 September 2007)
-	GK	Teddy Richert	21 September 1974 (age 33)	0	0	Sochaux (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	GK	Grégory Coupet	31 December 1972 (age 34)	27	0	Lyon (Euro 2008 qual. v. Georgia, 6 June, 2007)
-	DF	Julien Rodriguez	11 June 1978 (age 29)	0	0	Marseille (friendly v. Argentina, February 7, 2007)
-	DF	Jonathan Zebina	19 July 1978 (age 29)	1	0	Juventus (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	DF	Anthony Réveillère	11 October 1979 (age 28)	5	0	Lyon (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	DF	Julien Escudé	17 August 1979 (age 28)	5	0	Sevilla (Euro 2008 qual. v. Scotland, 12 September 2007)
-	DF	Philippe Mexès	30 March 1982 (age 25)	8	0	Roma (friendly v. Slovakia, 22 August, 2007)
-	DF	Gaël Givet	9 October 1981 (age 26)	12	0	Marseille (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	DF	Jean-Alain Boumsong	14 December 1979 (age 27)	22	1	Juventus (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	DF	Mikaël Silvestre	9 August 1977 (age 30)	39	0	Man United (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	DF	Willy Sagnol	18 March 1977 (Age 30)	53	0	Bayern Munich (friendly v. Austria, 28 March, 2007)
-	MF	Jérémy Mathieu	23 October 1983 (age 24)	0	0	Toulouse (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	MF	Julien Faubert	1 August 1983 (age 24)	1	1	West Ham (Euro 2008 qual. v. Italy, 6 September 2006)
-	MF	Abou Diaby	11 May 1986] (age 21)	2	0	Arsenal (friendly v. Austria, 28 March, 2007)
-	MF	Rio Antonio Mavuba	8 March 1984 (age 23)	6	0	Villarreal (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	FW	Jimmy Briand	2 August 1985 (age 22)	0	0	Rennes (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	FW	Frédéric Piquionne	8 December 1978 (age 28)	1	0	Monaco (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	FW	Louis Saha	8 August 1978 (age 29)	18	4	Manchester United (friendly v. Greece, 15 November, 2006)
-	FW	Djibril Cissé	12 August 1981 (age 26)	35	9	Marseille (friendly v. Slovakia, August 2007)
-	FW	Sylvain Wiltord	10 May 1974 (age 33)	92	26	Rennes (friendly v. Austria, 28 March, 2007)

Head Coach	Raymond Domenech
Assistant Coach	Pierre Mankowski
Goalkeeping Coach	Bruno Martini

Main article: List of France international footballers

As of December 13, 2007, the ten players with the most caps for France are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Lilian Thuram*	1994 - Present	136	2
2	Marcel Desailly	1993 - 2004	116	3
3	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	108	31
4	Patrick Vieira*	1997 - Present	104	6
5	Didier Deschamps	1989 - 2000	103	4
6	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	97	44
6	Bixente Lizarazu	1992 - 2004	97	2
6	Laurent Blanc	1989 - 2000	97	16
9	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	92	26
10	Fabien Barthez	1994 - 2006	87	0

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

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

As of December 13, 2007, the best ten goalscorers for France are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	44 (97)
2	Michel Platini	1976 - 1987	41 (72)
3	David Trézéguet*	1998 - Present	34 (70)
4	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	31 (108)
5	Just Fontaine	1953 - 1960	30 (21)
5	Jean-Pierre Papin	1986 - 1995	30 (54)
7	Youri Djorkaeff	1993 - 2002	28 (82)
8	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	26 (92)
9	Jean Vincent	1953 - 1961	22 (46)
10	Jean Nicolas	1933 - 1938	21 (25)

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

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-present)

Category:France national football team managers

France women's national football team
France national under-21 football team
France national youth football team (Includes U-17, U-18, U-19, U20, U-23 Squads)
French Guiana national football team
Guadeloupe national football team
Martinique national football team
New Caledonia national football team
Réunion national football team
Saint-Martin national football team
Tahiti national football team

^ FourFourTwo Great Footballers: Eric Cantona 198.
^ "A Multi-Hued National Team Thrills Racially Uneasy France", Washington Post, 7 July 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "The Sword is Mightier than Le Pen", ESPN, 7 July 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
^ "Finkielkraut sur Europe 1", Le Nouvel Observateur, 25 November 2005. Retrieved on 2005-11-25.
^ "Zidane and Materazzi fined and banned by FIFA", Reuters, 20 July 2006. Retrieved on 2006-07-20.
^ Hughes, Matt. "Read my lips: the taunt that made Zidane snap", The Times, 2006-07-10. Retrieved on 2006-07-11.
^ "Race card trumps head-butt", Toronto Sun, 2006-07-15. Retrieved on 2006-08-12. "The Head Butt Furor: A Window on Europe's Identity Crisis", TIME Magazine, 2006-07-13. Retrieved on 2006-07-13. It should be noted that Italy, historically an emigrant nation, has a small non-white population, whereas France has become a multiracial country due to substantial non-Europeant immigration, chiefly from its former colonial empire.

French National Football Team Official Website (French)
www.fff.fr (National Team Page) (French)
French National Football Team (French)
IFFHS Archive:1904-1910
RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers
RSSSF archive of coaches 1960-
France National Football Team
France World Cup News 2006

Preceded by 1994 Brazil	World Champions 1998 (First title)	Succeeded by 2002 Brazil
Preceded by 1999 Mexico	Confederations Cup Winners 2001 (First title) 2003 (Second title)	Succeeded by 2005 Brazil
Preceded by 1980 West Germany	European Champions 1984 (First title)	Succeeded by 1988 Netherlands
Preceded by 1996 Germany	European Champions 2000 (Second title)	Succeeded by 2004 Greece
Preceded by Inaugral Event	Artemio Franchi Trophy 1985 (First title)	Succeeded by 1993 Argentina
Preceded by 1993 Hungary	Kirin Cup Champions 1994 (First title)	Succeeded by 1995 Japan

Football in France

v • d • e

League competitions	National association	Cup competitions
Ligue 1	LFP	Coupe de France
Ligue 2	National team	Coupe de la Ligue
National	B	Trophée des Champions
CFA (4 groups)	U-21	Coupe Gambardella
CFA 2 (8 groups)	List of clubs
League system	List of venues
Women Division 1	Women's national team