“Macron will be there on Sunday: the world champion photo is worth a fortune for any president”

France, the country most critical of Qatar and its Cup, blesses them with the presence of its president Emmanuel Macron in the Al Bayt box to see his team beat Morocco and reach the final. The possible world title is a gigantic booty that exceeds sports and is within reach. The people will celebrate and the government will want to capitalize. So it is necessary to stop wrinkling your nose and momentarily forget about the raised human rights and take advantage of the blown up. In addition, Qatar is one of France’s best clients in various areas, aircraft, construction… And the most powerful and popular team in France is Qatari-owned: Paris Saint Germain. To complete the liturgy, Macron declared that “Qatar is organizing this competition especially well. Security is good.” Terrific, compared to the incredibly poor operative set up in Paris for the Champions League final. Done, Qatar is good. To something else.

But he had to “explain” why he came to Qatar. She said that she “completely assumed” the visit, despite the controversy and the ongoing investigation into suspicions of corruption in the European Parliament. Greek MEP Eva Kaili was arrested on Friday and dismissed from her position as deputy speaker of Parliament accused of receiving payments from Qatar to defend her interests. “Four years ago I was with the national team in Russia and I am with them in Qatar,” said Macron, who traveled to Brussels, although he will surely be present on Sunday, because the photo of world champions is worth a fortune for any president. And Macron already has one, the one from 2018. But that’s okay, France is the first world soccer power and it is logical that a politician seeks to be associated with such success.

The French championship in Spain is contemptuously called “the league of farmers”, but it is a little more than that. From that farm come the many great. Les Bleus have just reached their third final in the last five World Cups. They have been runners-up in the Eurocup in 2016 and winners of the League of Nations in 2021. But, above all, it is the country that produces the most elite soccer players in the world, even above Brazil and Argentina, historically the two most generous bellies in terms of cracks. The training phenomenon was born in the eighties, with lots of soccer academies throughout the country. Thus, after that golden generation of the ’82 World Cup with Platini, Giresse, Tressor, Lacombe, Genghini, Bossis, Amoros, Six, Tigana, Rocheteau, it gave birth to an immense number of talents such as Zinedine Zidane, Franck Ribery, Eric Cantona, Laurent Blanc, Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry, Jean Pierre Papin, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Marcel Desailly, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kanté, Kylian Mbappé… And a hundred other notable farmers. Suffice it to say that he has given birth to four Ballon d’Ors: Platini (won 3), Zidane, Papin and Benzema.

In 1998 the champion team was called “multicultural France”, due to the number of players nationalized from Africa and former colonies. But the dozens of figures born and trained in France who later joined other teams for reasons of dual nationality are not counted. With grassroots work, French football was displacing powers like Italy, Germany, Spain, England, Brazil, Argentina. It is no coincidence that three of the four semifinalists are countries that procreate the most talent: France, Argentina and Croatia. Because the tactics can be brilliant, but they require lucid executors.

Before arriving at the World Cup, Didier Deschamps lost half a dozen players like Kanté, Pogba, Kimpembe, Benzema, Lucas Hernández in the first game, then the coach brought down Pavard -with whom he admitted to having fought-, at some point Rabiot and Upamecano suffered a virus, but the coach looks at the bottom of the closet and takes out four good fives, as good as those killed in combat. It is excellence that gives abundance.

France joined the exclusive group of football powers late, had a magnificent irruption in 1982 when they lost the famous semifinal against Rummenigge’s Germany on penalties – they had tied 3-3 after a dramatic battle, the night Schumacher almost killed Battiston- . France won 3-1 in the extra time and in a heroic reaction the Panzers equalized and forced the definition from 12 steps. So it was fourth. In Mexico ’86 he got closer to the top: third. And in 1998 he crowned with the group led by Zidane. So it was said that it was basically due to the influence of its location. Nothing more wrong, Aimé Jacquet had built a magnificent block, with an iron defense: Thuram, Desailly, Leboeuf and Lizarazu. He beat a powerful Brazil 3-0 in the final with Taffarel, Cafú, Aldair, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Bebeto, Ronaldo… There he took off his enthusiastic soccer backpack, which encouraged championships, but did not go beyond the quarterfinals or semifinals. And, without complexes, he went for everything.

Even when it has Mbappé in splendor, this blue team that will face Argentina on Sunday is a more modest expression in names than others of the past. But she can have the pleasure of being a two-time world champion due to the number of good elements such as Lloris, a true save goalkeeper, Varane, Giroud, Griezmann (who plays better for the national team than for his clubs), Mbappé, Koundé, Upamecano, Theo Hernández , Chouameni. The top five started in the 2018 final in Moscow, they already know what it’s like to win a World Cup and they are full of confidence.

And they have an expert driver. Deschamps seems to have been born for the position. He was already champion in 1998 as a midfielder and in 2018 directing. Now he can do a triplet and it is a fact that he will continue to lead. In 18 World Cup matches, the Bayonne-born has barely lost two. Efficiency to all test.

Various sectors of the French citizenry called for a boycott of Qatar 2022 in demand for human rights, but tens of thousands took to the streets of Paris to celebrate the pass to the final and the TV broadcast broke all records with more than 20 million viewers. viewers, who will surely surpass themselves on Sunday against Argentina. Macron himself played down the protests and drew the veil of hypocrisy: “There were many debates, people said ‘we are not going to follow him, we are going to boycott television.’ The numbers are there.”