00:05At France 1998, football's greatest stage was a giant stage.
00:12For the first time, FIFA had decided the World Cup tournament would be contested by 32 nations instead of 24.
00:21And in keeping with the theme, organizers of the opening ceremony in Paris were convinced that size mattered.
00:30The ceremony was highlighted by a parade of giants, four figures, 70 feet high, weighing 38 tons each.
00:40The four giants, representing the four colors of humanity, and named Ho, Romeo, Pablo and Moussa,
00:48each started at different points of Paris and lumbered their way to a symbolic meeting spot at the Place de
00:54la Concorde,
00:56accompanied by an array of jugglers, acrobats, dancers and contortionists.
01:04Coincidentally, the France 1998 tournament would also feature four giant personalities.
01:11Even if one of them wasn't there at all, one left rather early, one went missing in action when it
01:17counted most,
01:19and one was absolutely stunning.
01:24The one who wasn't there at all probably got as much publicity as any player who was.
01:30Paul Gascoyne, Gaza, had made the FIFA All-Star team in 1990,
01:35when he carried England to their first semi-final appearance since their 1966 triumph.
01:42But by 1998, his infamous lack of discipline and other personal struggles had begun to seriously impact his reliability,
01:51if not yet his brilliance.
01:55England coach Glenn Hoddle believed Gascoyne could no longer be risked in the demanding environment of a World Cup,
02:02and cut him from the squad,
02:04creating a media storm and signaling a rapid acceleration of Gaza's decline.
02:11When Hoddle told him of the decision,
02:13Gascoyne trashed the coach's room at the camp in Spain.
02:18He never played for England again.
02:22Another England player grabbing headlines in 1998 was David Beckham,
02:27at 23 the hottest property in the Premier League with Manchester United,
02:31but still establishing his reputation at international level.
02:36Having seen first-hand the ruination of Gascoyne,
02:39Hoddle was perhaps over-sensitive to the distractions caused by the media obsession with Beckham's private life,
02:46as the fiancée of Spice Girl Victoria Adams.
02:51Although Beckham was the only Englishman to have played all eight qualifying matches,
02:56the coach questioned his focus and refused to start him for the first two group matches.
03:03After losing the second match to Romania,
03:06Hoddle finally picked Beckham for the third match against Colombia,
03:10and he responded by bending a free kick into the net for England's second goal
03:14and lifting them into the round of 16.
03:19But in the next match against Argentina,
03:21Hoddle's fears about Beckham's focus were realized when he was antagonized by Diego Simeone.
03:29After being brutally fouled,
03:31Beckham was on the ground and flicked back his leg in a mild but unnecessary retaliation.
03:38Simeone took a dive and Beckham was red-carded,
03:42leaving England to battle to a draw with ten men before losing on penalties.
03:48Beckham was shattered while Hoddle's reaction was to say the young star should not be blamed,
03:53and then promptly blamed him.
03:56I don't think it's a time now to make scapegoats in David Beckham or to blame anybody.
04:02I think David's the first to admit that it's a silly mistake that he's made on a football pitch.
04:07One that I felt wasn't violent conduct,
04:11but it was something that at this level he's got to learn that we can't afford to do them things.
04:15Not just David, but any player that's playing in a tournament this big.
04:20You can't afford to do it.
04:21You're going to get punished, and we have been punished.
04:25Beckham even received death threats from fans who blamed him for the defeat.
04:29And years later, he said he believed Hoddle's criticism fueled some of the frenzied anger directed at him.
04:36With England heading home after the round of 16, the focus fell back on defending champions Brazil.
04:43In the same round, the world's best player Ronaldo had exploded with two goals in a 4-1 defeat of
04:50Chile.
04:51Another goal in the semi-final against Netherlands took his total for the tournament to four,
04:56and as the reigning Ballon d'Or winner and World Player of the Year,
04:59the 22-year-old was on his way to fulfilling what many had felt was his destiny.
05:06But the pressure on such a young player was immense, and Ronaldo cracked.
05:12Just after lunch on the day of the final against France, he suffered a convulsive fit.
05:18His roommate Roberto Carlos screamed for help,
05:22and others including defender Sampaio rushed to his aid, preventing him from swallowing his tongue.
05:30Ronaldo was left off the team sheet, but after he begged coach Mario Zagallo to play,
05:35he was reinstated, many believe under pressure from sponsors.
05:41But he was a shadow of himself, having little impact on the contest,
05:45as his equivalent in the France team asserted his authority.
05:52As host nation, France would have been under the microscope anyway,
05:56but an embarrassing capitulation in the final qualifying stages for the 1994 World Cup intensified the pressure.
06:06Gérard Houllier had been sacked as coach, replaced by his assistant, Aimé Jacquet,
06:12who in the minds of the French media carried baggage from the 1994 debacle.
06:19For Jacquet, there was only one way to go, invest in youth and start again.
06:25Fortunately for him and for France, a young midfielder of Algerian descent was crying out for selection.
06:33Zinedine Zidane made his international debut in August 1994 at the age of 22.
06:41Five months later, an incident in England seemed initially to be a disaster for France's national team.
06:48Instead, it was the making of their surprising success.
06:52Eric Cantona assaulted a spectator in the Premier League,
06:56was banned for the rest of the season, and Jacquet stripped him of the French captaincy.
07:03Given his head, Zidane took over as the national team's playmaker,
07:07and the brilliant but abrasive and disruptive Cantona never played for his country again.
07:13Jacquet also transitioned winger David Ginola and striker Jean-Pierre Papin out of the side.
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