The France national football team (French: Équipe de France) represents France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation (French: Fédération Française de Football), the governing body of football in France, and competes as a member of UEFA, which encompasses the countries of Europe. The national team's traditional colours are blue, white and red, the colors of the national flag of France, known as the drapeau tricolore, and the coq gaulois is the symbol of the team. France is colloquially known as Les Bleus (The Blues), which is the name associated with all of the country's sporting national teams, due to the blue shirts each team incorporates.
France played its first official match in 1904, and today primarily plays its home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris. The national team has won one FIFA World Cup title, two UEFA European Football Championships, an Olympic tournament, and two FIFA Confederations Cups. Following France's 2001 Confederations Cup victory, they became, along with Argentina, the only national teams to win the three most important men's titles organized by FIFA. France has a strong rivalry with neighbours Italy, and has historically also had important rivalries with Belgium, Brazil, England, and Germany.
The national team has experienced much of its success during three major "golden generations": in the 1950s, 1980s, and 1990s respectively, which resulted in numerous major honours. France was one of the four European teams that participated in the inaugural World Cup in 1930 and, although having been eliminated in the qualification stage six times, is one of only three teams that have entered every World Cup cycle. In 1958, the team, led by Raymond Kopa and Just Fontaine, finished in third place at the FIFA World Cup. In 1984, France, led by Ballon d'Or winner Michel Platini, won UEFA Euro 1984. Under the leadership of Didier Deschamps and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Zinedine Zidane, France became one of eight national teams to win the FIFA World Cup in 1998 when it hosted the tournament. Two years later, the team triumphed again in UEFA Euro 2000 and became the top team in the FIFA World Rankings for the first time. France has since added a pair of Confederations Cup titles, in 2001 and 2003, as well as an appearance in the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which it lost 5–3 on penalties to Italy.
Following the team's disastrous 2010 FIFA World Cup campaign, a major reconstruction within the federation resulted in the resignation of president Jean-Pierre Escalettes and the appointment of former international Laurent Blanc as manager. After dropping to 27th in the FIFA World Rankings in September 2010, its lowest ranking ever, France is currently ranked 14th.
Read more about France National Football Team: History, Home Stadium, Coaching Staff, Players, Results, Competitive Record, Honours
Famous quotes containing the words football team, france, national, football and/or team:
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“America was too big to have been discovered all at one time. It would have been better for the graces if it had been discovered in pieces of about the size of France or Germany at a time.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“We want, and must have, a national policy, as to slavery, which deals with it as being wrong.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”
—A.E. (Alfred Edward)