Paris. There is really one sacred rule in French football: don’t touch Zizou.
After a series of controversies, FFF president Noel Le Graet crossed the line this weekend, once again opening the door to a national team culture where conflict appears to be the lifeblood.
The week was only a few hours away when Noel Le Graet made a little dog at 10 o’clock on a Monday morning.
My statements do not at all reflect my thoughts or opinions about the player he was and the coach he has become. I admit that my statements were clumsy, incorrect and created misunderstandings. “Zinedine Zidane knows how incredibly much I admire him, as do all French people,” Le Grat said in a statement.
On Sunday evening, the president of the French Football Federation was a guest on RMC radio and was asked questions about the men’s national team and the future of Zinedine Zidane. And Didier Deschamps had announced the day before the extension of his contract as captain of the national team until 2026, a process that happened unexpectedly quickly after reaching the World Cup final in Qatar and was followed by a few surprises in the French media. Died has scored an unprecedented record three tournament finals, with Switzerland’s last-16 exit from the European Championship last summer the only blemish on record, and is a beloved figure in French football. But the fact that the extension was not preceded by an ounce of controversy raised many eyebrows. After all, Deschamps has been in charge since fall 2012. Zinedine Zidane lurks behind the scenes.
Ever since he stated in a nearly twenty-page long interview with L’Equipe this summer that “my story with the French national team is far from over”, Zinedine Zidane has been widely seen as the national team’s next clear captain. The World Cup in Qatar was seen as the natural end station to Deschamps’ ten successful years before the next era took hold. And what an era it will be! And what anguish spread in French football when Zizou was rumored this week to the Brazil national team!
About these rumors, Noel Le Grat got lost in an interview with RMC:
– I couldn’t care less. He can go wherever he wants, to a team or a national team, although I don’t believe in that.
When asked if Zidane had contacted Le Grat about the matter, the 81-year-old federation president replied:
Absolutely not, and I wouldn’t have answered even if he had.
Feedback, as they say, was not long in coming.
“Zidane is France. You don’t lack respect for a legend like him,” tweeted Kylian Mbappe on Sunday night. Names like Franck Ribery, Djibril Cisse and Youri Djorkaeff quickly caught on and soon a veritable football storm emerged in France. Again.
Another crazy statement…
Generously, French football is known to have a high ceiling. So high that it is sometimes appropriate to speak of the absence of barriers. But the spirit of Zinedine Zidane prevails, and the first to mention his name in negative terms loses all discussions. This also applies if, for example, he were to sabotage a World Cup final by incurring a spectacular and unnecessary dismissal over a minor provocation. You don’t touch Zizou.
Above all, he showed particularly poor judgment of the already weak Noel Le Graet for attacking the high priest of French football at this time. “NLG” is already under investigation for sexual harassment after several female colleagues testified in So Foot newspaper about vague calls and rude text messages from the association’s president (https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/a/LlAGWx/noel- accused of sexual harassment ). Le Great maintains his innocence and believes he “can’t even send text messages”.
French Sports Minister Amelie Audia-Castéra, who commissioned the investigation, tweeted on Sunday evening: “Another crazy statement, this time with the shameful disrespect that hurts us all, against the legend of football and sport: the ‘president’ of France’s largest. The sports federation must not express itself in these words.” Method. Please apologize for the statement regarding Zidane, thank you.”
He disappears constantly
On Monday, l’Équipe’s front page was adorned with Le Graet’s photo and the headline, “Unacceptable.” At the turn of the decade, Real Madrid published a statement regretting Le Graet’s “inappropriate remarks” regarding the club’s former coach. And soon, former national team defender Frank Lew will demand the resignation of Noel Le Graet. By then, the issue had already become truly political.
“His remarks are condescending and insulting to a legend in football history. They deeply hurt supporters,” said far-right National Assembly leader Jordan Bardella on BFM TV, who is not known for feeling sorry for the children of Algerian immigrants. Camel when he noticed that Le Graët might not have been on board with the French trend to take a white month in January.
French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel went further, calling Le Graet “a disgrace to French sport” and calling for his resignation. France’s ministers and members of parliament on Monday followed suit.
Noel Le Graet’s mandate from the French Football Federation extends to Euro 2024, but at the moment it seems uncertain whether he can stay for long. In addition to being the subject of an ongoing investigation into alleged sexual harassment due to be reported in February, Lou Graet has several statements on his resume that would cost anyone a standing of trust. After extending the women’s national team captain’s contract, despite signals from several players that it wasn’t working out, Le Graet said two years ago that players can “keep ripping each other’s hair out, I don’t care.” In 2020, he said that racism essentially does not exist in football because everyone can see that “the whole stadium stands when a black player scores”.
Perhaps the saddest happenings are for Didier Deschamps, who has to navigate around a constantly departing coach and an almost sacred rival in old national team teammate Zidane who seems impatient to replace him.