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| Deschamps lifting the World Cup in 1998; Zidane celebrates 3rd to his left |
French football reached its
zenith on the night of July 12th, 1998, as Didier Deschamps stood atop a
rostrum in the newly built Stade de France to loft a golden sculpture above
his head. France had at last won a World Cup, and in some fashion, having left
no doubts in a 3-0 battering of defending champion Brazil on French soil. For the
country this was a major milestone in overcoming their colonial past; France's
football team had always been celebrated for representing the diversity of a
multiethnic France, and conquering the world (as well as the continent two
years later in Euro 2000) was a vindication of the country's social policy of
integration and tolerance. Twelve of France's twenty-two at France 98 were
migrants or sons of migrants, and a talismanic Algerian midfielder by the name
of Zinedine Zidane scored twice in the final, becoming the face of French
football for nearly a decade until his retirement in 2006. Migrants made France
champions, but by 2014 France was exporting talent more than they
were importing it.
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| France's lineup and substitutes for the 98 final - 7 of 14 were migrants or sons of migrants |
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| Saint-Ouen in red, with the Stade de France down the road |
Sofiane
Feghouli was eight years old when he saw Zidane lift the World Cup. He was born
to Algerian parents and grew up only a mile from the site of the final in the
Parisian suburb of Saint-Ouen, playing his youth football at the academies of
semi-professional Parisian clubs Red Star and Paris FC before shipping out as a
teen to Grenoble in the French Alps. Feghouli appeared twice for France's U18s
and three times for their U21s; but by 2014 he was featuring prominently in an
Algeria side that took eventual champions Germany to the brink, having scored
the country's first World Cup goal in 28 years in an earlier tight loss to quarterfinalists
Belgium (the previous having been scored by Zinedine Zidane's father, Djamel Zidane, against Northern Ireland in 1986).
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| Feghouli celebrates his historic goal in Algeria's Group H opener against Belgium |
France
and Algeria have had a tense relationship since the French invaded and occupied
Algiers in 1830 as part of their Arab-African empire. Algeria gained their
independence over a century later, in 1962, after an ugly and bitter eight-year war. Forty-six
years later, in 1998, the Algerian Zidane powered France to its maiden World Cup
conquest. Pride in the multiethnicity of France leads to the optimistic
scheduling of a friendly between France and Algeria in 2001. What was meant to
be a symbolic showing of peace that would strengthen the relationship between the
two nationalities became a symbolic representation of the tensions between them
when the French national anthem was booed and, with France leading 4-1, the
Algerian supporters invaded the pitch of the Stade de France. The match had to
be abandoned.
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| Pictured above: not helping racial relations |
For
Feghouli, the decision to represent Algeria had very much to do with France's
colonial past and present. In an interview before the 2015 African
Cup of Nations
, he told French newspaper L'Equipe:
"I grew up with an Algerian culture at home.
This attachment came in natural ways . . . I have learned the history of the
two countries as I grew up, and what I feel goes beyond football. With
everything I have lived, I don't feel fully integrated in French society, and
the choice of Algeria is from the heart. I feel Algerian, quite simply."
Feghouli's
story is far from unique. Fourteen of his twenty-two Algeria teammates at the
World Cup in Brazil were also French-born and raised. In total, twenty-four players born in France went on to represent countries other than France at the
2014 World Cup, more than double the next closest country in this statistic
(Germany, with twelve). The struggle for integration and acceptance is not a
uniquely French Arab problem. Cameroon left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto spoke out
against French attitudes towards minorities in 2014, saying that, "when
the national team gets a bad result, they start to say there is a little bit
too many black people, Muslim people, and this kind of stuff." Feghouli
echoed this, claiming to L'Equipe that Zidane was only considered French
"because he was successful and made the nation win" and telling
English media outlet The Independent that "Islamophobia is rife in mainstream French life."
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| Algeria's lineup and substitutes against Germany in 2014 - 9 of 14 were French-born |
There
is certainly some evidence to the truth of Assou-Ekotto and Feghouli's
statements. While the multiethnicity of the French squad at the 1998 World Cup
was celebrated after a successful campaign, it was maligned when the squad at the
2010 World Cup was imploded by infighting, leading to a disastrous group stage
exit on only one point, three fewer than minnow hosts South Africa in the same
group. Pundits questioned the national team's lack of "identity", while members of the French far right (like Jean-Marie Le
Pen, whose anti-immigration party has been complaining since the 90s about the
demographics of the French squad) were much less shy about scapegoating the
minority players. The tenuous footballing relationship between France and its
minorities received a very painful scar in 2011 when a scandal, revealed by
French investigative website Mediapart, alleged that top officials in the French
Football Association proposed quotas on minorities at the youth
levels as a means of reducing multiethnicity at the senior level. Manager
Laurent Blanc denied the allegations, claiming that they were taken out of
context. That this scandal, while shocking, did not seem to be totally surprising
is revealing of the social difficulties that are pushing so many French
minorities to prefer their heritage to their homeland.
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| French technical director Francois Blaquart |
While
it is obvious that there are still social conflicts in the country that betray
what many hoped Zidane's generation would accomplish, it is important that the
high number of French-born players representing other countries not necessarily
be misconstrued as French cultural acceptance deteriorating. Their squad remains just as diverse today as it was in 1998. While France is
exporting footballers more than ever before, primarily to Algeria, this may only
be true because changes in the eligibility rules allow it to be. In 2004, FIFA
began allowing players that represented one country at youth level to apply to
switch to another, provided they applied before the age of 21 (even this age
requirement was dropped in 2009 after a motion from Algeria was passed). This significantly expanded Algeria's player
pool as previously many French-born Algerians, having to choose between
representing France or Algeria, chose not to play for Algeria in the hopes of
getting called up for the superior French side. Under the current rules, this
player can now fall back on Algeria if they don't make it for France. This is
the problem that French officials claim to have been addressing when the quota
scandal emerged; technical director Francois Blaquart was frustrated with
developing young multiethnic players only to have them switch to another
country at the senior level, effectively producing quality players for other
countries to use against them. Of course, even if this was the misunderstood
context of the scandal, it is inexcusably problematic to propose a quota to
solve this problem.
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| Feghouli represented France at the youth level before making the switch to Algeria |
There
are clear fault lines in French society that will continue to push people like
Sofiane Feghouli who were born and raised in France to feel as though they are
not French. The scapegoating of the Arab and black French players shows that the
country still has some colonial notions of superiority to resolve. Zidane's
generation did a lot of good - a French Arab will forever be remembered as a
bona fide national hero - but the country's unqualified pride in its diversity
seemed to be only temporary. The French squad is still just as diverse today as it was in 1998, but sentiments seem to waver with results. By viewing World Cup and Euro success as
vindications of the virtues of tolerance and diversity, failure became evidence
of their shortcomings. While sporting success can only do good, raising new
generations on new heroes, French Arabs and blacks shouldn't have to prove
themselves to be accepted.
Kyle Knotts is a sophomore at Rutgers University majoring in economics and statistics. You can
contact him at kyleknotts@comcast.net.
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