Spiro Matthew - Sacre Bleu: Zidane to Mbappé A football journey

F or French people, watching the national team has been an emotional experience in recent years. The player strike at the World Cup in 2010 was a terrible low. You could say that Knysna was like our Waterloo. It was a sad period for everybody who loves French football. But it was also an opportunity to make a fresh start, and I believe we learned from it. We thought: This cannot be allowed to happen again. The players have to behave better. It proved to be a good learning curve for us.

In 2018, I always thought France would win the World Cup. Why? Because physically the team was fantastic, and they had a good balance between physical power and technical ability. The longer the competition went on, the more this physical power took over. Even within the matches, the longer they lasted, the more they were able to dominate their opponent physically. It is simple, if I play against Kylian Mbapp and in the first twenty minutes he runs at me at 90 per cent, I have to go at 110 per cent to stay with him. If after an hour he goes at 100 per cent, then I can no longer stay with him!

Mbapp is of course very important. It has felt like God had sent us this boy to show us how to play and how to behave. He typifies what French football is about. He is a boy who has received a very good education. His parents are sports people his mother was an international handball player and his father x was a football coach and they clearly educated him well. But he also has something inside him, something he was born with. We have seen great young football players before, but when you hear Mbapp doing his first interview at eighteen, and you feel like he has been doing that his whole life, you realise he is different. This is not something that he learned. He was born to do this. Of course he has the footballing talent, but what is needed today to be a star is the ability to communicate with the rest of the world from one single interview. And he has that.

What we are currently seeing is that through immigration France has a huge opportunity. The absolute heart of the national team is made up of players from immigrant backgrounds who have been educated in the French game. Im talking about Paul Pogba, NGolo Kant, Blaise Matuidi, Kylian Mbapp and Samuel Umtiti. This isnt new. Historically the successful national teams have always had strong links to immigration, from Raymond Kopa, Michel Platini and Zindine Zidane, to Mbapp and Pogba. So of course we are lucky to have so many fine players with origins from big football countries like Senegal, Cte dIvoire, Mali, Cameroon, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

In France, young players often learn their skills by playing football against each other in their home suburbs. I believe 60 per cent of professional players in France come from the Paris suburbs. That is incredible! I remember when I was Monaco coach, I asked Lilian Thuram to explain to me what his childhood was like. He said that after school, it was football, football and more football. He played together with people from all sorts of different backgrounds. It was tough and there were many good players. You have to be strong to survive in those conditions because there is a real competitive edge. You want to prove you are the best, and youre playing with kids who are ready to fight to show you that youre not. So the guys who come out from there, they are ready for the fight. I believe the football education they receive gives them great mental strength. xi

As a parent, when you educate your children you think you absolutely want to protect them from danger. But actually the best thing to do is to get them to fight against disappointment and adversity. This is the best preparation for life. Their hunger to achieve will be high and they will have developed their capacity to fight. Thats not something you get taught in the best schools.

For many years, France has been good at developing young players. When I was the Arsenal manager, I knew that if I took a player from France he would be at the physical level required to perform immediately. France has been ahead of the game in this respect. The other advantage that France coach Didier Deschamps has is that French players get to play from a young age in Ligue 1. They play, then as soon as they do well they leave for other leagues. When they leave Ligue 1 they are well prepared. This then opens the door for somebody else and thats why we have so many good young players.

The big problem in England is in the category of players aged between seventeen and twenty-one. In England, they scout well and they coach well. But the integration of young players into the first team is often not successful because the competition for places is too high, the level of performance in the league is too high and the pressure put on the managers to succeed is too high. The last part of a players education is gained in competition. In France, unlike in England, the players get the opportunity to compete.

Looking forward, I think this generation of French players has the chance to create a legacy. Usually when a team wins a World Cup, it is the end of an era. But in 2018 the France team was full of young players. It was the start of an era. When it comes to players, we are spoilt for choice. Look at the last World Cup; Anthony Martial didnt make the cut. He plays for Manchester United, which is not a small club. Alexandre Lacazette didnt make it. Basically they had too much choice! Its just a xii matter of finding the right balance because we have no problem with the quality of the individual players. If they find the right balance, and if the team is efficient, they can carry on winning major tournaments.