Racism row rumbles in the background as hosts look to Pogba and Griezmann
After the World Cup two years ago, home advantage will never again mean quite what it used to. Different countries respond in different ways, Brazil buckled under it, driving themselves into an emotional hysteria which left them unable to compete. They lost 7-1 and only by so few because Germany took pity on them in the second half.
The last time France hosted a tournament was the 1998 World Cup, when a powerful, youthful, unifying team wrote one of the feel-good stories of modern international football. Aime Jacquet’s team routed overwhelming favourites Brazil in the final, won 3-0, and rode that momentum to glory at Euro 2000 two years later.
Their captain was Didier Deschamps and the big question, the only question facing France this summer, 18 years on, is whether the team that he now coaches can do the same.
French football has a long-standing fixation with character, or rather mentalité, and whether players have enough of it, and the right type of it, to represent Les Bleus. That was why the mutiny on the bus at Knysna at the 2010 World Cup hurt so much, and led to such recriminations. The guilty players were thought to have disrespected not just the coach Raymond Domenech but the whole institution of French national sport.
The story of the last six years, first under Laurent Blanc and now Deschamps, has been the attempt to re-establish the right character in the French national team, to build a team that the public can support again.
Deschamps’ squad reflects that. There are established names, such as Hugo Lloris and Laurent Koscielny, and coming superstars in Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba. But there are also plenty of players who are there as much for their reliability and their affability as for their achievements at club level.
Yohan Cabaye and Moussa Sissoko have done next to nothing for their clubs this season and yet they are in the squad because they are trusted by the coach. Olivier Giroud did not score a Premier League goal between 13 January and 8 May, a run of 15 appearances, and yet he is an important part of the squad. “There is a truth on the pitch,” Deschamps explained, “but there is also a notion of the group, which is fundamental.”
Karim Benzema will not be joining Didier Deschamps at the Euros (Getty)
The corollary of this is that players who are not thought to be good for the team ethic are not involved. Karim Benzema, of course, is suspended pending the investigation into blackmail allegations against him. He is the best French striker there is but he will not be playing this summer. Hatem Ben Arfa has just enjoyed the season of his career at Nice, playing spectacular football and driving the team single-handedly, but he was only chosen as a reserve by Deschamps. Samir Nasri, who went to Euro 2012 only to get into an ugly row with a journalist there, has not played for the national team since 2013.
Those three, Ben Arfa, Benzema and Nasri, la génération 1987, were the great hopes of French football after winning the European Under-17 Championship in 2004. And yet now none of them are played for Deschamps’ group. Neither is Jeremy Menez, similar talent, similar age, who has not played for France for even longer than Nasri.
There has long been a suspicion that endless talk of ‘character’ in the context of the national team was just racial code used against players of Maghreb heritage, a suspicion that Eric Cantona gave voice to in an interview last month.
“Benzema is a great player. Ben Arfa is a great player,” Cantona told The Guardian. “But Deschamps, he has a really French name. Maybe he is the only one in France to have a truly French name. Nobody in his family mixed with anybody. So I am not surprised he used the situation of Benzema not to take him. And Ben Arfa is maybe the best player in France today. But they have some origins.”
Benzema himself has stopped short of accusing Deschamps of racism, but did say that the international coach “bowed to the pressure from a racist part of France”. He pointed to the popularity of the Front National and said that his erstwhile coach – for whom it is inconceivable he will play again – should have stood up to the forces of racism on his behalf. The French public predominantly support Deschamps and the FFF’s decision.
This was meant to be the tournament which Ben Arfa, Benzema and Nasri brought home but in reality it is the next generation of French players who are about to star. Griezmann and Pogba are already established stars at the top level and have achieved a lot aged 25 and 23. Even younger than them are Anthony Martial, at 20, and Kingsley Coman, who turns 20 two days after France open Euro 2016 against Romania.
Pogba and Griezmann are different players, Pogba the inspirational engine of this team, Griezmann the cutting edge. But they are both huge stars already, and the pair are vying to be amongst the most famous footballers of the post-Messi, post-Ronaldo era. Griezmann has 3.9million fans on Facebook and 1.9m on Instagram. Pogba has 4.1m on Facebook and 3.4m on Instagram. He is also going to be the face of Adidas’ Euro 2016 campaigns, along with Dele Alli and Mesut Ozil.
Antoine Griezmann is a wonderful striker (Getty)
Their fame extends far beyond France and that is precisely the point. Neither Pogba nor Griezmann, the two men who are trying to win Euro 2016 for France on home soil, has played one minute of domestic football on French soil. Pogba’s story is well known: he moved around youth clubs in France as a boy and in July 2009, at the age of 16, Manchester United signed him from Le Havre, a move that ended up in the courts. He spent three years developing at United before leaving for Juventus, where he has just racked up his fourth consecutive Serie A title. His next step can only be to a giant of the English or Spanish game.
Griezmann’s own story is not quite as controversial, but followed a similar path. He grew up in Macon, a small town in Saone-et-Loire, not too far from the German border. At 14 he was spotted by Real Sociedad, and he left France to join their academy. At 18 he made his debut for La Real and played four full seasons for them before making his big move two summers ago to Atletico Madrid, for whom he provides the pace in behind they have always lacked.
Coman and Martial almost look parochial in comparison: Coman played three games for Paris Saint Germain before leaving for Juventus, Martial a few games for Lyon and two whole seasons for Monaco before joining Manchester United.
PSG would dearly love to sign Griezmann and Pogba, the best French players of their generation. But these two brilliant footballers are in no rush to leave Europe’s top sides for what would be, in sporting if not financial terms, a step down. Ligue 1 is Europe’s least competitive big league, won by 31 points this year by a PSG team who fluffed their lines against a poor Manchester City side in the Champions League quarter-finals. The French domestic league is in a mess, but for as long as they produce players who hone their skills elsewhere, the national team has a chance.
