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What to expect

‘Excellent' – Simon Kuper, author of the bestselling FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY

‘The definitive story of how French football came of age’ – Christian Karembeu

‘Erudite and engrossing' – Vincent Duluc, lead football writer, L’ÉQUIPE

THE PLAYERS, THE TEAMS, THE GOALS, THE GAMES, THE SCANDALS, THE GLOOM AND THE GLORY: THE STORY OF FRENCH FOOTBALL’S CHEQUERED COMING OF AGE OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS.

French football is an enigma: a puzzling jumble of brilliance and farce, flair and frailty, stunning success and abject failure. Its domestic league is mocked on social media as an uncompetitive ‘Farmers League’ and its clubs derided for underachieving in European competition. But France have reached four of the past seven men’s World Cup finals, French players star week in, week out for the world’s grandest clubs and the very best of French football – the roar of the Vélodrome, the glamour of the Parc des Princes, the shimmering brilliance of Zinédine Zidane, Éric Cantona and Kylian Mbappé – stands comparison with anything the sport has to offer. When it comes to scandal, meanwhile, the French are the best in the business, be it sensational match-fixing affairs, squabbles over sex tapes or meltdowns within the national squad.

In this fascinating and exhaustively researched book, the first of its kind in the English language, Tom Williams brings to life French football’s chequered coming of age over the last 40 years. He details how the starry-eyed romanticism that characterised the national team in the early 1980s gave way to an Italian-style pragmatism that would lead Les Bleus to the summit of the international game in the late 1990s, and examines how a succession of star-studded club sides grappled with the thorny (and distinctly un-French) notion of how to win. By delving into French football's rich history, he also explains the myriad ways – tactical, technical and cultural – in which France has shaped the game’s evolution around the world.

Featuring exclusive interviews with great figures of the French game such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Emmanuel Petit and Blaise Matuidi, and with a cast of characters that also includes Michel Platini, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Chris Waddle and Lionel Messi, it's a book no football fan will want to miss.

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‘A comprehensive account of the highs, lows and scandals of French football’ – Jonathan Wilson, author of the bestselling INVERTING THE PYRAMID

Critics Review

  • As it turns out, what was required to really define the identity of our football was a perspective that was partly inward-looking and partly continental. Erudite and engrossing, this book adds a biting modernity to the old legend of France’s magnificent losers.

    Vincent Duluc, lead football writer, L'ÉQUIPE

  • Williams is an engaging and intelligent storyteller, who knows France well beyond sport. This is an inspiring account of how French football went, in a very few years, from almost nowhere to regularly leading the world – and of some of the colourful and sometimes frankly bizarre people who took it there. In a word, it’s excellent.

    Simon Kuper, author of the bestselling FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY

  • A comprehensive account of the highs, lows and scandals of French football, told through a series of fascinating vignettes.

    Jonathan Wilson, author of INVERTING THE PYRAMID

  • The definitive story of how French football came of age.

    Christian Karembeu, world and European champion with France

  • I loved my time in France and it changed the way I thought about the game. Using the stories of France’s most celebrated teams and players, this fabulous book explains what sets French football apart.

    Glenn Hoddle, former Monaco midfielder

  • A masterclass. A delightful insight into the history, the culture and the values of French football. Having worked in France for three years now, it helped me understand so many concepts and words that they use in the weird and wonderful world that is la Ligue 1.

    Will Still, head coach, Reims

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