There’s something inherently emotive about the sight of waving tricolores.
France is a country that does mass healing better than any other, usually marked by a scene of red, white and blue, as well as singing—lots and lots of singing. That was the case in Marseille when Les Bleus made the final of Euro 2016 by beating world champions Germany. La Revolution, indeed.
The sight of the Stade Velodrome united in jubilation wasn’t quite as breathtaking as the one witnessed after France’s World Cup triumph in 1998, when over a million people took to the streets of Paris to greet their champions, but it wasn’t far away. That triumph was about more than just sport, and another French victory on Sunday would similarly transcend soccer.
This European Championship, just like the 1998 World Cup, has been played against the backdrop of societal unrest. The circumstances are of course very different, but nonetheless, this French team has more than just sporting expectations heaped on their shoulders. They are charged with lifting an entire nation.
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It’s not just their country that Didier Deschamps’ side is spiritually carrying. Europe is a continent in turmoil at present, with governments debating and voting on whether to tear themselves apart from one another. Euro 2016 has been a tournament of escapism, and France has become the team of the escapists.
Host nations are often the favourites of the neutral, especially when it’s France—the land of flair, panache and romance. Unless you’re Portuguese it’s probably safe to say that those without a horse in the race will join the thousands at the Stade de France in waving a tricolore. For the first time in a while, Europe might enjoy some sense of unity on Sunday.
Euro 2016 has been the most political of tournaments: from England fans’ Brexit-inspired chants in Marseille, to the Croatia support’s pyrotechnic protest against their own football association. And then there’s the lingering impact of the atrocious terror attacks in Paris last November. Security was beefed up at Euro 2016, as it has been across the continent for the past few months. A sense of unease has refused to shift throughout this tournament.
It’s a scenario the likes of which France is perhaps accustomed to more than most. Back in 1998 Aime Jacquet’s French team was the subject of political scrutiny, with the country’s far right political parties’ opposing the diversity of his squad for the World Cup. Eighteen years ago, France was a country divided and uncertain of its prevailing direction.
But the glory of France’s World Cup win unified a country in desperate need of unification. Jean-Marie Le Pen and his followers were marginalised by the cultural awakening enjoyed over the summer of 1998. The hope is that a win for France over Portugal this weekend would restore a sense of self-confidence to a nation still somewhat unsure of itself after the events of the past year.
Yet there is consistently comfort for France on home soil. They have won the last two major tournaments they have hosted (the 1984 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup), and now they have the chance to make it a hat trick of home soil glories against Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal on Sunday.
Deschamps is the figure that spans both generations. He was captain of the French team that won the World Cup in 1998, and now he is the national team’s manager, leading them to Euro 2016’s final. Perhaps only Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini (before he became European soccer’s pantomime villain as UEFA president) would rank above him in the pantheon of French legends.
This tournament needs a happy ending. Never before has the European Championship been preceded by more apprehension than anticipation. Some of that could be dispelled by what happens in Saint-Denis on Sunday. Euro 2016 has borne a number of uplifting plot lines (Iceland’s maybe the most up-lifting) and the final needs another one.
A million revellers might not take to the Parisian streets in the event of another French win on Sunday, but this tournament has succeeded by capturing in some form a semblance of what made the 1998 World Cup so special.
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