France Football Formation

Lineup (4-2-3-1)

Fabien Barthez · Éric Abidal · Willy Sagnol · William Gallas · Lilian Thuram · Claude Makélélé · Patrick Vieira · Zinedine Zidane (c) · Florent Malouda · Franck Ribéry · Thierry Henry

France "Runners Up XI" (2006)

Zinedine Zidane came out of retirement to help France in the 2006 World Cup, and what a World Cup he had! Only to be tarnished in the ill-fated final when Zidane lost control, while otherwise he largely carried France almost single-handedly, mostly so against Brazil in the quarter-final. With Thierry Henry at his best, France was destined to win, only to the 'Materazzi incident', due to which Zidane was red-carded. As the TV camera captured Zidane's dejected walk past the World Cup - it became an image of tragedy, as probably the greatest player of the modern game leaves empty-handed in his farewell match, and what could have been champagnes and confetti ended with an image of melancholy. With that ended France's greatest generation of players. However, everyone remembers the way they played, and the absolute elegance of their plays. Zidane, Henry, Barthez and group remained only 1 World Cup winner (1998), but their names became etched forever in the history of Football.

Coach/Manager :- Raymond Domenech

Reserves include :- Alou Diarra, David Trezeguet and Sylvain Wiltord.