France national football team

• 1. Introduction

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  On the 1st of May 1904, France played their very first official international football match against Belgium in Brussels, and the result was a 3-3 draw. Nobody watching that afternoon could have imagined what the next century would bring. Les Bleus, as they would come to be known, would go on to win the FIFA World Cup twice, claim two UEFA European Championships, and eventually become the first European national team to have won every senior FIFA and UEFA competition ever contested. The questions worth asking are not just what they won, but how they got there, and why the journey was so turbulent along the way.

• 2. Roots and Early Struggles

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  France's first home match, played on the 12th of February 1905, drew 500 supporters to the Parc des Princes to watch a 1-0 win over Switzerland. The only goal came from Gaston Cypres. That modest crowd was fitting for a team still finding its feet within the fractured landscape of French football administration. The French Football Federation itself did not come into being until 1919, when the rival Comite Interfederal transformed itself, and the competing Union des Societes Francaises de Sports Athletiques did not merge into the FFF until 1921. Those organizational divisions slowed the country's development on the pitch for years.

  In July 1930, France arrived in Uruguay for the inaugural FIFA World Cup. Their opening match produced a 4-1 victory over Mexico, and Lucien Laurent scored the very first goal in World Cup history. That same tournament also produced a grimmer milestone: France became the first team to fail to score in a World Cup match, losing 1-0 to Argentina. They bowed out in the group stage. A year later, Raoul Diagne, who was of Senegalese descent, earned his first cap and became the first black player selected for the national team, in a 2-1 defeat to Czechoslovakia on the 15th of February.

  At the 1934 World Cup, France lost 3-2 to Austria in the opening round. When the squad returned to Paris, a crowd of over 4,000 supporters greeted them as heroes. France hosted the 1938 edition and reached the quarterfinals before losing 3-1 to defending champions Italy, who went on to win the tournament.

• 3. The First Golden Generation

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  Just Fontaine scored four goals in the third-place match at the 1958 World Cup against West Germany, lifting his total for the entire tournament to 13 goals. That record has never been broken. Fontaine was the centerpiece of France's first genuine golden generation, a group that also included Raymond Kopa, Jean Vincent, Robert Jonquet, and Maryan Wisnieski, among others.

  France had lost the 1958 semifinal to Brazil, but the third-place victory over West Germany by 6-3 remains one of the most emphatic performances in the team's early history. Two years later, France hosted the inaugural UEFA European Football Championship in 1960. They reached the semifinals again, only to fall 5-4 to Yugoslavia despite holding a 4-2 lead as late as the 75th minute. The third-place match brought a 2-0 defeat to Czechoslovakia, and the decade of sustained momentum France had built came to a halt.

  The 1960s and 1970s saw the team decline sharply. Manager Henri Guerrin, officially installed on the 25th of April 1962, failed to guide France to the 1962 World Cup or the 1964 European Nations' Cup. A series of caretaker managers followed Guerrin's dismissal, including Just Fontaine himself in a brief stint in charge. Romania's Stefan Kovacs became the only foreign manager ever to take charge of the national team, serving briefly before being replaced by Michel Hidalgo.

• 4. The Magic Square

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  Michel Platini, a three-time Ballon d'Or winner, was the axis around which France rebuilt itself under coach Michel Hidalgo in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Platini, along with Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, and Luis Fernandez, formed the unit that French football came to call the "carre magique", or "Magic Square". Alongside defenders Marius Tresor and Maxime Bossis and striker Dominique Rocheteau, this group gave France a style of play that earned them the informal label "Brazilians of Europe".

  At the 1982 World Cup, France reached the semifinals in what is remembered as one of the greatest matches in World Cup history, losing on penalties to West Germany. They finished fourth overall, dropping the third-place playoff 3-2 to Poland. Two years later, they hosted Euro 1984 and Platini scored a tournament-high nine goals, including both in the 2-0 final win over Spain. France then won gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics and, the following year, defeated Uruguay 2-0 to claim the Artemio Franchi Trophy. For a brief period, France held three of the four major international trophies simultaneously.

  At the 1986 World Cup, Platini's generation reached the semifinals again, lost a rematch to West Germany, and then beat Belgium 4-2 to take third place. In 1988, the FFF opened the Clairefontaine National Football Institute, attended at its opening ceremony by then-President Francois Mitterrand. Five months later, Hidalgo's successor Henri Michel was fired, and Platini himself took over as manager, though he could not guide the team to the 1990 World Cup.

• 5. The Zidane Era

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  Under manager Gerard Houllier, France suffered what many supporters still consider the most painful night in the team's modern history. With qualification for the 1994 World Cup almost secured, France lost 3-2 at home to Israel after leading 2-1 late in the match, and then conceded a 90th-minute goal to lose 2-1 to Bulgaria. The fallout was severe. Houllier was dismissed, and Aime Jacquet, his assistant, was appointed as his replacement.

  Jacquet rebuilt around a younger generation, including Zinedine Zidane, while keeping experience from the group that had failed four years earlier. France reached the semifinals of Euro 1996 before losing 6-5 on penalties to the Czech Republic. The 1998 World Cup, hosted in France, produced a different result entirely. France went through the tournament undefeated and became the seventh nation to win the World Cup, defeating Brazil 3-0 in the final at the Stade de France in Paris. Jacquet stood down after the triumph, succeeded by Roger Lemerre.

  Led by FIFA World Player of the Year Zidane, France then defeated Italy 2-1 in the Euro 2000 final, with David Trezeguet scoring the golden goal in extra time. That result gave France the distinction of holding both the World Cup and Euro titles at the same time, a feat first achieved by West Germany in 1974, and the first time a reigning World Cup winner had gone on to capture the Euro. France also won the 2001 and 2003 FIFA Confederations Cups, defeating Japan 1-0 and Cameroon 1-0 respectively.

• 6. Crisis and the Headbutt Final

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  One of the greatest shocks in World Cup history arrived in 2002 when France, the reigning champions, lost 1-0 to debutants Senegal in their opening group game. France departed the tournament without scoring a goal and became only the second defending World Cup champion to exit in the first round. Lemerre was dismissed and France stumbled through subsequent tournaments.

  Raymond Domenech, who replaced Jacques Santini after Euro 2004, persuaded several veterans to come out of international retirement to help qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The strategy worked. In the knockout rounds, France defeated Spain, Brazil, and Portugal before reaching the final against Italy. Zinedine Zidane gave France the lead with a Panenka penalty that struck the crossbar and crossed the goal line. Italy's Marco Materazzi equalized from a header seven minutes later. The match ended 1-1 after extra time, and Italy won 5-3 on penalties. During extra time, Zidane headbutted Materazzi on the chest and was sent off. Zidane had already announced he would retire after the tournament, making that headbutt his final act in professional football.

  The 2010 World Cup brought a different kind of crisis. Striker Nicolas Anelka was dismissed from the squad mid-tournament after reportedly exchanging obscenities with Domenech during halftime of the loss to Mexico. The players responded by boycotting training before their third game. Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot addressed the squad and, according to reports, reduced France's World Cup players to tears with an emotional speech. France lost their final group match 2-1 to South Africa and were eliminated. Following the tournament, Nicolas Anelka received an 18-match ban, effectively ending his international career.

• 7. Second World Cup and Grand Slam

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  Samuel Umtiti's goal for France against Belgium in the 2018 World Cup semifinal, a 1-0 win, was one of three consecutive 1-0 knockout victories that helped Les Bleus navigate to the final. On the 15th of July 2018, France beat Croatia 4-2 to win the World Cup for the second time. The defence that carried the team was later given the nickname "Mur de fer", French for "The Iron Wall".

  Under Didier Deschamps, who had captained the 1998 title-winning team, France continued to accumulate silverware. After winning the 2021 UEFA Nations League by defeating Spain 2-1 in the final, the team became the first, and as of now the only, European national team to have won every senior FIFA and UEFA competition on offer. France had also previously completed the full set of FIFA age-group competitions, sharing with Brazil the distinction of being the only countries to have won all men's FIFA eleven-player competitions at all age levels, and the first to complete that collection after the U-20 national team won the first U-20 World Cup title in 2013.

  At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, France reached a second consecutive final, defeating Poland, England, and Morocco along the way. The final against Argentina ended 3-3 after extra time and France lost 4-2 on penalties. At Euro 2024 in Germany, France reached the semifinals, where they fell 2-1 to Spain. Deschamps confirmed in 2025 that he will leave the role when his contract expires after the 2026 World Cup.

• 8. Kit, Crest, and the Stade de France

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  France's first official shirt, worn in that inaugural match against Belgium in 1904, was white and carried the interlocked rings emblem of the USFSA. The blue home kit that France is now synonymous with came later, along with the white shorts and red socks that complete the tricolour reference. Between 1909 and 1914, the team wore a white shirt with blue stripes. At the 1978 World Cup in Mar del Plata, both France and Hungary arrived for their group match wearing white kits. France borrowed green-and-white striped shirts from local club Atletico Kimberley to play the game.

  France wore kits made by Le Coq Sportif from 1966 to 1971, then signed with Adidas in 1972. That partnership lasted 38 years, covering Euro 1984, the 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2000. On the 22nd of February 2008, the FFF announced it was ending the Adidas arrangement and signing with Nike, effective the 1st of January 2011. The Nike deal, valued at 320 million euros over seven years, made France's blue shirt the most expensive kit sponsorship in football history at the time.

  The Stade de France in Saint-Denis, with an all-seater capacity of 81,338, was inaugurated ahead of the 1998 World Cup. France's first match there was played on the 28th of January 1998 against Spain, a 1-0 win with Zinedine Zidane scoring the only goal. On the 13th of November 2015, during a friendly against Germany at the Stade de France, three groups of terrorists attempted to detonate explosive vests at three entrances to the stadium. Two explosions occurred. Play continued until the 94th minute to avoid panicking the crowd, and both teams remained inside the stadium until the following day.