How does France keep developing generational talents?

Name: How does France keep developing generational talents?
Uploaded: 2024-09-19T17:05:26+00:00
Duration: 6 min 7 s
Channel: euronews (in English)
Description: Despite missing out on Euro glory and Olympic gold, France is one of the best international football teams in the world.

euronews (in English)

1 year ago

Despite missing out on Euro glory and Olympic gold, France is one of the best international football teams in the world.

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00:00It's been another successful summer for French football, another European semi-final and a medal

00:05at their home Olympics. The players may change but the dominance on the international stage

00:10continues. So how does French football keep producing world-class talent with every generation?

00:20Hello and welcome to Football Now. The dust has settled on another summer of international

00:27tournaments and once again history will reflect kindly on French football. Another European

00:33Championship semi-final appearance and an Olympic medal for their under-23s on home soil. Another

00:40generation has had an early introduction to glory but just how impressive are this group of young

00:46players?

01:16France's international dominance has been evident by their impressive track record in major tournaments

01:32over the last 25 years. In 1998 they clinched their first World Cup title on home soil with

01:38a memorable 3-0 victory over Brazil in the final. This triumph was followed by consecutive success

01:44at Euro 2000 and despite a setback in the 2006 World Cup final where they lost in a penalty

01:51shootout to Italy in Berlin, France remained formidable. Their resurgence came with a runner-up

01:56finish at Euro 2016 before a new generation triumphed by winning the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

02:03They continued their historic run by reaching the 2022 FIFA World Cup final in Qatar though they

02:09narrowly missed out on reclaiming the title falling to Lionel Messi's Argentina in one of the

02:14most iconic games in the tournament's history. Four trophies, an Olympic silver medal and seven major

02:21finals since 1998 is no coincidence. Generation after generation France find ways to produce talent

02:29that is born to win but how do they keep doing it? Well it's a combination of their multicultural

02:35society and being home to one of the best academies in world football. To understand you

02:41know how France keep on producing top football talents what you need to understand are the

02:45country's demographics. From the end of Les Trampes Glorieuses in the 60s immigrants represented about

02:52six to seven percent of France's population. Most of them were European and a minority of them from

02:57northern Africa where France had colonialism and for some of these immigrants children sports and

03:02most notably football because it's an easy sport, the best one there is. Football would be seen as

03:07the equalizer, the unifier because when you have a football at your feet it does not matter where

03:12you are from. Great French players like Raymond Copin, Juste Fontaine, Michel Platini, Jean Ticana, Patrick Vira,

03:17Lilian Thuram, Zidane, Paul Pogba, Delecourté and Ken Mbappé they all have an immigrant background

03:23through their parents or grandparents. In order to nurture all of these promising talents from

03:27diverse backgrounds the Football Federation opened Clairefontaine in 1988. It is now regarded

03:33as one of the most established and successful academies in world football.

03:57It gives us an incredible energy, a combativeness because it's the elite, it's the elite, it's something extraordinary that allows you to have a know-how because it's true that the clubs work well,

04:10obviously there are training centres like Lyon, like PSG, like Monaco, but coming to Clairefontaine at the age of 11-12 and saying that we are among the best French players of their generation

04:22being very young is something that gives you a lot of confidence, that gives you a lot of confidence because it's true that when you play at Clairefontaine, you say to yourself that you have a great chance of being a pro player later.

04:34Well, despite the international success, France's domestic league, Ligue 1, is actually seen as one of the weaker divisions when compared with the other top nations across Europe.

04:44This is due to the amount of players who leave their home country to go and play their club football elsewhere.

04:50It's a model, however, that has several benefits for the national team, including economics and further player development.

04:57I know that France and Brazil are the two main countries with the major number of players abroad.

05:04It's like that for years now because it's our strategy, it's our economic reality of the league and we are not the Premier League who can buy the best players,

05:13we are not the Bundesliga who can buy a bunch of good players.

05:17We have to make our players great in the league and then we sell them to the biggest clubs and the biggest leagues.

05:24We will stay in that strategy to develop young players because it's our economical model for years and it will remain like that because France is not Italy, it's not Germany, Spain or England in terms of power, of economical power to buy the best players.

05:40Well, no one knows how to make history in international football quite like the French do and it seems set to continue after another successful summer for their young players.

05:50Let us know your thoughts using the hashtag FootballNowFrenchSuccess.

05:54That's all we've got time for from our studio here in Doha. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.