Nickname	Les Bleus (The Blues)
Association	French Football Federation (Fédération Française de Football)
Coach	Raymond Domenech, 2004-
Most caps	Marcel Desailly (116)
Top scorer	Michel Platini (41)
First international Belgium 3 - 3 France (Brussels, Belgium; 1 May 1904)
Largest win France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan (Paris, France; 6 September 1995)
Worst defeat Denmark 17 - 1 France (London, England; 19 October 1908)
World Cup
Appearances	12 (First in 1930)
Best result	Winners, 1998
European Championship
Appearances	6 (First in 1960)
Best result	Winners, 1984 and 2000

The France national football team is a European football team among the top sides in international football today.

France came third in the 1958 World Cup. The generation of Michel Platini and others came fourth in 1982, and third in 1986. In between, they won the European Championship in 1984.

France's most successful years were the 1990s, the generation of Zidane and others. This team played in the semifinals of Euro 96, two years later hosted and won the 1998 World Cup, and two years later won Euro 2000.

Ranked as favourites, this team's performance in the 2002 World Cup was dismal, not winning a single game, nor scoring a goal. Despite this they were still among the favourites to win Euro 2004, but were beaten in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners Greece.

World Cup record

• 1930 - Round 1
• 1934 - Round 1
• 1938 - Quarterfinals
• 1950 - Did not qualify
• 1954 - Round 1
• 1958 - Third place
• 1962 - Did not qualify
• 1966 - Round 1
• 1970 - Did not qualify
• 1974 - Did not qualify
• 1978 - Round 1
• 1982 - Fourth place
• 1986 - Third place
• 1990 - Did not qualify
• 1994 - Did not qualify
• 1998 - Champions
• 2002 - Round 1
• 2006 - Qualified

European Championship record

• 1960 - Fourth place
• 1964 to 1980 - Did not qualify
• 1984 - Champions
• 1988 - Did not qualify
• 1992 - Round 1
• 1996 - Semifinals
• 2000 - Champions
• 2004 - Quarterfinals

Famous past players

Manuel Amoros Joël Bats Larbi Ben Barek Laurent Blanc Basile Boli Maxime Bossis Eric Cantona Pierre Chayriguès Julien Darui Marcel Desailly Didier Deschamps Jules Dewaquez Jean Djorkaeff Youri Djorkaeff Christophe Dugarry

Luis Fernandez Just Fontaine Lucien Gamblin David Ginola Alain Giresse Robert Herbin Robert Jonquet Christian Karembeu Raymond Kopa Frank Leboeuf Bixente Lizarazu Eugène Maës Roger Marche Étienne Mattler Henri Michel Jean-Pierre Papin

Emmanuel Petit Roger Piantoni Michel Platini Dominique Rocheteau Didier Six Jean Tigana Marius Trésor

Current squad

Goalkeepers:

•  Fabien Barthez
•  Grégory Coupet
•  Mickaël Landreau

Defenders:

•  Éric Abidal
•  Jean-Alain Boumsong
•  William Gallas
•  Gaël Givet
•  Franck Jurietti
•  Anthony Réveillère
•  Willy Sagnol
•  Lilian Thuram

Midfielders:

•  Alou Diarra
•  Vikash Dhorasoo
•  Ludovic Giuly
•  Sidney Govou
•  Claude Makélélé
•  Florent Malouda
•  Jérôme Rothen
•  Patrick Vieira
•  Zinédine Zidane (captain)

Forwards:

•  Nicolas Anelka
•  Djibril Cissé
•  Thierry Henry
•  David Trézéguet
•  Sylvain Wiltord

Player records

Most capped French players

As of November 12, 2005, the ten players with the most caps for France are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Marcel Desailly	1993-2004	116	3
2	Lilian Thuram*	1994-2005	110	2
3	Didier Deschamps	1989-2000	103	4
4	Zinedine Zidane*	1994-2005	98	28
5	Laurent Blanc	1989-2000	97	16
	Bixente Lizarazu	1992-2004	97	2
7	Patrick Vieira*	1997-2005	83	4
8	Manuel Amoros	1982-1992	82	1
	Youri Djorkaeff	1993-2002	82	28
10	Robert Pires	1996-2004	79	14

Members of the 1998 World Cup-winning team are in bold. * denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Top France goal scorers

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Michel Platini	1976-87	41 (72)
2	Thierry Henry*	1997-2005	31 (75)
	David Trezeguet*	1998-2005	31 (60)
4	Just Fontaine	1953-60	30 (21)
	Jean-Pierre Papin	1986-95	30 (54)
6	Youri Djorkaeff	1993-2002	28 (82)
	Zinedine Zidane*	1994-2005	28 (98)
8	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999-2005	24 (76)
9	Jean Vincent	1953-61	22 (46)
10	Jean Nicolas	1933-38	21 (25)

Members of the 1998 World Cup-winning team are in bold. * denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Coaches

Before 1955, players were selected by committee.

• Albert Batteux (1955-1962)
• Henri Guérin (1962-1966)
• José Arribas and Jean Snella (1966)
• Just Fontaine (1967)
• Louis Dugauguez (1967-1968)
• Georges Boulogne (1969-1973)
• Stefan Kovacs (1973-1975)
• Michel Hidalgo (1976-1984)
• Henri Michel (1984-1988)
• Michel Platini (1988-1992)
• Gérard Houllier (1992-1993)
• Aimé Jacquet (1993-1998)
• Roger Lemerre (1998-2002)
• Jacques Santini (2002-2004)
• Raymond Domenech (2004-)