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Nickname: Les Bleus
Manager: Raymond Domenech
Previous Cup appearances: 12
Best finish: Winners, 1998
Key players:
Franck Ribery
Jeremy Toulalan
Thierry Henry
If you weren’t aware that France had made it to the 2010 World Cup finals, then you probably spent November 2009 living in a cave.
Thierry Henry’s handball in the second leg of France’s play-off against the Republic of Ireland blew up into one of the biggest controversies in recent sporting history.
The episode tarnished the legacy of the veteran striker, while France’s woeful performance in the play-off demonstrated how far the side has fallen over the past decade.
Ironically, Henry is the last survivor of the great French team that lifted the World Cup in 1998 and, for many onlookers, his desperate handball aptly illustrated how far Les Bleus have fallen since that glorious summer.
Although the French squad is drawn from clubs of the calibre of Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona, the players have so far seemed incapable or unwilling to replicate their domestic excellence on the international stage.
Much of the fault for that must lie with the team’s eccentric coach, Raymond Domenech. Here is a man who, as a Lyon player, concreted over his front garden because he said the green grass reminded him of the colours of his club’s deadly rivals St Etienne.
And the 57-year-old’s behaviour is as quirky now as it has ever been, as his decision to propose to his girlfriend on live TV minutes after France had been disastrously knocked out of Euro 2008 proved.
Domenech has come under increasing fire from the French media for both his tactical naivety and his stubbornness, not without some justification.
It is difficult to understand how a team containing talents like Franck Ribery, Nicolas Anelka and Karim Benzema can produce mediocrity on quite such a consistent basis.
Of course, Domenech’s well-rehearsed riposte is that he faced exactly the same criticism before the 2006 World Cup, and yet he still managed to guide France to the final.
However, on that occasion, France had the inspirational figure of Zinedine Zidane to paper over the cracks. Or at least they did until his extraordinary final act on a football field, that infamous headbutt to the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi.
The nearest thing that France have now to a Zidane-style talisman is Henry.
He has already ticked one box with his own moment of madness against Ireland. Whether he can tick the other one by inspiring his team to World Cup success remains to be seen - but as a squad they certainly have the talent to go all the way.
