As Paris handed the Olympic torch over to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games, debate continued as to whether football should continue to have a place in its pantheon. France's men, under Thierry Henry, took the silver medal following an extra-time defeat by Spain and could probably be judged the apex of the French government's recent high value investment in top-level sport, starting with winning the bid to host last year's Rugby World Cup.
Thierry Henry for France Boss?
Current “regular” national team coach, Didier Deschamps, was in the stands as his old team-mate and their country's current under 21s manager fell agonisingly short of leading what was essentially an under 23 team, with three permitted overage players. Jean-Phillipe Mateta of Crystal Palace, Sevilla's Loïc Badé and former Arsenal man Alexandre Lacazette, now back at Lyon, couldn’t get over the line to gold, as the current Spanish dominance of world football rolled on unabated...
Regardless, has Henry done enough to put his name into the hat for when the top job becomes available, should Deschamps either walk away or be given the push? Following a decidedly average managerial career, in his own right, across spells with former club Monaco and Montreal Impact, it is surely one of many questions arising in the aftermath of the achievement in leading France this far.
Group A sewn up with wins over the USA, Guinea and New Zealand as a prelude to near-glory following a twenty-four year absence from the Olympic stage, ended by qualification for the preceding tournament at the 2020 Games in Tokyo. A comparative flop as Sylvain Ripoll couldn't even get them out of the group stage once they got to the Land of the Rising Sun, a third place finish above only South Africa in Group A, as hosts Japan and eventual bronze medallists Mexico advanced to within sniffing distance of the podium.
No doubt the spicy 1-0 win over Argentina in the 2024 quarter-final was all the sweeter following post-2022 World Cup final bad blood between the two nations. Something which spilled over into the rugby sevens, a comparatively recent addition to the Olympic offering. Back with the rounder ball, and a nervy semi- final against Egypt welcomed an extra- time coup de grace from Michael Olise after his former Crystal Palace team-mate, Mateta, had equalised with nearly five minutes to go. Cancelling out Mahmoud Saber's opener near the hour mark, Mateta adding another in the 99th minute to settle any squeaking derrières...
It was a considerably more chastening return to Olympic action for the French, after so long away, when they kicked off with a 4-1 defeat to the Mexicans in 2020. A André-Pierre Gignac penalty, with around twenty minutes to go, proved scant consolation to the most senior, at 35, of the three overage players allowed. He, and indeed his team, would have far better luck in their second match of the group stage against South Africa, a hat-trick helping them squeak it 4-3 before heading home after a 4-0 defeat to Japan, who would themselves pass the Olympic flame on to the visitors once business concluded for another four years.
Domenech: From Olympian to Pariah
Twenty-four years previously they'd reached the quarter-finals, the last time the Games were on American soil in 1996- Raymond Domenech, who would later step up to coach the full national team in 2004, the man in charge and perhaps a source of inspiration (or should that be embarrassment?) to his latest Olympic successor, who lest we forget also played under him.
Placed in Group B alongside Australia, Saudi Arabia and current flavour of the month Spain, they would start with a 2-0 win over the Aussies, Robert Pires and Florian Maurice the scorers. Before what looked to be all three points, courtesy of Sylvain Legwinski, was denied by an equaliser from Oscar with five minutes to go against La Roja. Saudi Arabia suffered a second 2-1 defeat of the tournament to ease Domenech and his men through.
A literal fall at the first major hurdle awaited as Portugal snatched a golden goal win via an extra time penalty! Nevertheless, within around ten years it was the architect of France's second most successful post- FIFA Games campaign, who was given the nod to replace Jacques Santini in the aftermath of a Euro 2004 quarter final exit to surprise eventual winners Greece, much to the surprise of fellow shortlisted candidates Laurent Blanc and Jean Tigana...
First on his to-do list, having got in via the back door, was shaking Les Bleus out of their funk and getting them over the border to Germany for the 2006 World Cup- mission accomplished after a 4-0 romp against Cyprus in their final qualifier. Having made it, his team selection raised a few eyebrows! And his refusal to explain decisions such as dropping Ludovic Giuly for Franck Ribéry could retrospectively be seen as his first big faux pas.
The underwhelming start to their Group G campaign saw many in the stands, as well as national press, sharpening their knives. A 0-0 draw with Switzerland was followed by a 1-1 stalemate against South Korea- Henry's ninth minute opener cancelled out by Park Ji-Sung with around ten minutes to play.
No doubt it was a relieved merci to Henry and Patrick Vieira for the two goals in around five second half minutes against Togo, which ensured they'd make it into the knockouts with a large dollop of fortune!
Spain awaited in the last sixteen and were dispatched 3-1 courtesy of Ribéry, Vieira and Zinedine Zidane, the latter who'd come out of international retirement following an SOS call. Answered in the best possible fashion here as he and his fellow countrymen finally remembered they were as good at actual football as behind the scenes drama. Henry helped them past Brazil in a quarter-final repeat of French football's then-most recent finest hour in the 1998 final on home soil to set up a semi- final against Portugal.
A Zidane penalty confounded expectation and got them into the final against Italy, a 5-3 defeat on penalties an anticlimactic denouement to what FIFA would no doubt call Domenech first major tournament in charge. The Olympics knocked off its lofty sporting perch in a footballing sense since the World Cup came to fruition in 1930- perhaps ironic given the French hosting of the first recognised Olympic kickabouts in 1900 at the start of what most would call the modern Games.
Though with national sides still in their relative infancy, it was left to Club Francais to represent their country and ultimately end up with the silver medal as Great Britain took gold, represented by Upton Park FC in a three-team group alongside Universite de Bruxelles. Belgium's representatives finished in bronze medal position after a 6-2 walloping by their French neighbours in the sole match pre-final, the shortened format coming into being as Switzerland and Germany eventually declined to send teams to compete!
Dragging things firmly back into the more recent past, if the World Cup was ultimately a kick in the pants, Domenech's sole Euros (2008) was further ammunition to his critics. Last place in Group C their reward for an opening share of the spoils against Romania, 4-1 thumping by the Netherlands and Italy rubbing further salt into the wound with a 2-0 victory to send them packing and possibly causing the French Football Federation to consider picking up the phone to either Blanc or Tigana to see if either still fancied the job.
Presumably neither was home if they had, as he clung on for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa- controversially, as that man Henry had actually handled the ball in setting up William Gallas for the winner in a qualifying play- off against the Republic of Ireland, waggishly dubbed the Hand of Frog by some!
They got their just desserts, perhaps, as once they got to the first African staging of the modern pinnacle of international football, they didn't stay long. A 0-0 draw with Uruguay, of course its first hosts back in 1930 as it wrestled prominence from Olympian hands, followed with a 2-0 defeat by Mexico before the nadir of a 2-1 loss to the then-hosts. All after a training ground boycott by the squad following Nicolas Anelka's dismissal from the camp, for a sweary rant against the coach post-Mexico! Only FFF intervention eased the tension before Domenech was sacked anyway amid allegations of gross misconduct, to leave all parties more than a little red-faced after the air had been turned blue.