footballs

Belgian defender Thomas Meunier caused debate recently after saying that France has the footballing talent to put out three teams capable of winning the World Cup.

Could Les Bleus, who are co-favourites with Spain in this summer’s World Cup, really lift the title with their second- or third-string team? Maybe not, but their talent is certainly Mariana Trench-deep.

Consider this: According to transfermarkt.com, a lineup of French players that didn’t make the 26-man cut would rank in value among the top five teams – ahead of Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands and reigning champions Argentina.

Lucas Chevalier 30 million euros ($35m); Pierre Kalulu 32 million, Jeremy Jacquet 55 million, Leny Yoro 50 million, Adrien Truffert 25 million; Boubacar Kamara 40 million, Eduardo Camavinga 50 million; Dilani Bakwa 28 million, Senny Mayulu 40 million or Khephren Thuram 40 million, Mousa Diaby 28 million; Junior Kroupi 40 million. = 418 million [38 million average]

So, how did Les Bleus get to this point?

It started with frustration after French teams consistently fell short on the biggest stage from the 1930s to the 1970s. The solution, national team manager Georges Boulogne said in the early 1970s, would be for the French Football Federation to create training academies known as Centres de Formation.

“France had not won any trophies, and it was decided they needed to create a new structure,” INF (Institut National du Football) Clairefontaine administrator Franck Bentolila told Al Jazeera.

The government backed the programme, viewing it as promoting French ideals through sports, as well as a recipe for winning trophies.

A total of 16 centres were set up, the first opening in 1974 with the main site in Vichy. It recruited widely, drawing young players from the entire country, plus overseas departments. The centres laid a foundation, preparing players for professional careers and the national team.

The record was initially mixed. In the 1980s, France won the European Championship and Olympic Games titles (both in 1984) and reached two World Cup semifinals, but then failed to qualify for the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.

But by 1998, everything fell into place, with the so-called “Black-Blanc-Beur” squad winning the World Cup at home. The multiethnic group represented the changing nature of French society, as well as validating the federation’s development programme. Bentolila said coach Aime Jacquet dedicated the victory to “all the amateur clubs and academies – it’s also your trophy”.

“The [1980s] period with [Michel] Platini, [Alain] Giresse, [Jean] Tigana, had a lot of talent, but we don’t win a World Cup,” Bernard Lama, a goalkeeper who captained the national team in the 1990s, told Al Jazeera.

“The difference with our generation, all the guys were from academies. And we were hungry to win a title. And, also, we had one exceptional talent with Zinedine Zidane.”

France went on to lift the 2018 World Cup and were runners-up in 2006 and 2022.

‘We have players who can make a difference’

Lama traces France’s success to the combination of the centres, with the contribution of immigration.

“You have people coming from overseas – Africa, French Guyana, Martinique – they give us two things, music and sports,” Lama said.

“And, now, there is a sub-generation coming from overseas, and they are French. [Ousmane] Dembele, [Desire] Doue, they are French, they are not naturalised, they grew up in France, the majority around Paris.

“And they are hungry, you understand, for a lot of reasons. But, also, it’s not only a question of work; the first thing is they have talent.”

Lama sees a danger in football, more broadly, of players becoming overly drilled and “robotic”, but France has many exceptions who can give them an edge.

“We are lucky to still have these players who are capable of making the difference,” Lama said. “Maybe that is why we are so good, we have players like [Kylian] Mbappe, Dembele, Doue. They hate to lose and, physically and technically, they can make the difference, individually.

“And that is the force of the national team, and also PSG, our capacity to score. Today, we have maybe four or five guys – [Maghnes] Akliouche, [Rayan] Cherki, a different kind of talent. When you have that explosion of talent, it gives the coach more solutions, offensive solutions.”

Most national team members, no matter their background, have gone through the academies, but their development starts long before that.

“It’s cultural,” Bentolila said. “In America, when you are young, you have a basketball in your hands, or a football in your hands. In France, you have a football at your feet when you are a baby – and free access to facilities.”

That part of the formula sounds similar to many countries. Is there a secret to French development, or are they just doing it better than most?

“The secrets,” said longtime coach and scout Stephane Nado, “are a combination of hard work, structure and organisation.”

Nado said: “The player is the centre, the heart, of the project. The player will receive education. And we will not take them away from their family. It is important for them to keep their roots, important psychologically. This is why France is one of the best in the world at developing players for export.”

Training at Clairefontaine blends street game skills with organisation, including “lots of 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2”, Bentolila said. “You have to fight. You’re good at dribbling and first touch, now you organise possession, 5 vs 2. As soon as you get the ball, you have to have good control. We do that a lot.”

Clairefontaine is now focusing on younger age groups, ceding responsibility for older players to clubs. And development is expanding beyond the centres and established club academies, Bentolila said.

“Paris and Sao Paulo are the best areas in the world for talent,” Bentolila said. “Why? Private academies. It is an amazing situation. Kids, eight- and nine-year-olds, playing every day. Amateur coaches offer not a meal, but a snack at 4 o’clock. Then, they do homework and training sessions. When they are 12 years old, they play like Mbappe.

“In Paris, you have amateur clubs nobody knows, and they can beat [the youth teams of] Barcelona and professional clubs. They are better than PSG, Paris FC. So many players – they play anywhere, any time, eight years old against 10 years old. They are like soldiers, they fight every day, and they are good because they play under pressure.”

In the 1980s, Les Bleus were dubbed “The Brazilians of Europe”. It’s taken a while, but France appears to have lived up to the moniker. And they’ve gone about it their own way.

“Brazilian coaches [used to] tell me, ‘In our country, we are poor, but we can succeed in football or music. So, we start the day with football,’” Bentolila said.

“In France, we go to school, first, and, after, practise football. We do it every day and, like Brazil, we play a lot, and play well.”

Lopez quickly caught attention at Madrid, though her route to the top was not without major obstacles.

At just 11 years old she lost her mother to a brain tumour. When her mother’s condition worsened and her father practically lived at the hospital, Mellado and her Madrid team-mates helped Lopez get to training and kept her occupied.

From there, Lopez developed at remarkable speed. In 2019, she was named most valuable player at a La Liga-organised tournament for under-12s girls’ teams after scoring seven goals, including a hat-trick in the final.

She caught the eye by scoring 60 goals in 17 matches in the 2020-21 youth league, and began her journey through the country’s junior ranks.

In September 2021, Lopez became the youngest player to feature in Spain’s top flight when she came off the bench against Athletic Bilbao, aged 15 years and 42 days.

“Of course she had the ability – I always told her so,” Mellado said.

“I also pushed her hard, because if she really wanted it, she had to always give her best and she always did. She was one of the hardest-working and she never once complained.

“She knows what she wants – that’s very important, because it makes her strive every day to achieve it.”

In 2022, perennial Spanish champions Barcelona signed Lopez on her 16th birthday, and two months later she became the youngest debutant in the club’s professional history.

She did so wearing the number 30, the same shirt worn by Lionel Messi when he broke into the Barca first team.

That season Lopez became Barcelona’s youngest-ever Champions League debutant, male or female, and the youngest player ever to score in Liga F.

If fans were not already excited by her potential, they were in October that year when she was named MVP as Spain won the U17 World Cup in India.

Lopez made her senior Spain debut in February 2024, replacing national icon Jenni Hermoso during the Nations League semi-final. At 17 years, six months, and 27 days, she become her country’s youngest debutant.

A breakout 2024-25 campaign – during which she stepped in for the ill Aitana Bonmati to help Spain reach the final of Euro 2025 – led to her winning the Kopa Trophy for the best young player in the world.

After initially being used as a winger, Lopez is now largely used in a central role for club and country despite competition from the likes of Bonmati, Patri Guijarro and her idol Alexia Putellas.

A combination of intelligence, excellent technique and athleticism allows her to both score and create – she has contributed nine goals and nine assists in 26 Liga F games this season, 16 of them as a starter.

“She’s not afraid of anything and she tries everything. And I think that’s why, even in teams with so much talent, she’s starting to earn a place in the starting line-up,” Vidal said.

“As we say in Spain, she’s one of those footballers you buy a ticket to watch, because she enjoys the game and makes you enjoy it too.

“She’s just as extroverted on the pitch as she is off it.”

Until a couple of seasons ago, it was usually an outfield player who would go to ground to stop play.

It was being used for two distinct reasons.

Either to break up the momentum of the opposition by causing a stoppage in play, or for the coach to give instructions to his players. Sometimes it has been both.

English football attempted to combat this by insisting that any player who receives treatment must leave the field for 30 seconds.

It had some positive results, but managers just switched focus and told the goalkeeper to ask for treatment.

A team cannot play without a goalkeeper, so it became a risk-free method of impacting the opposition, or getting the opportunity to talk to your team.

There is nothing a referee can do about it, as they cannot accuse a player of faking an injury. If it turned out the player was genuinely injured there could be serious repercussions.

So the game has been stuck in a doom loop.

Goalkeepers go down, the other 10 players rush to the technical area for a team talk.

As soon as the coach has delivered his message, the keeper miraculously gets to his feet.

It has been a theme during Leeds‘ season, starting in November when Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma went down as the West Yorkshire club were in the ascendancy at Etihad Stadium.

Manager Daniel Farke accused Donnarumma of feigning injury to “bend the rules” and break up play.

But this is not a Leeds issue, it is a football issue. It is happening at all levels of the game and is particularly prevalent in the women’s game.

Video shows Israeli police confiscating and destroying footballs that were being played with by children in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, in what mosque authorities described as part of ongoing restrictions on Palestinians inside the holy site.