Unfortunate heroes of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, the players of the France team were cheered on by 50,000 supporters on Monday evening December 19. They gathered at Place de la Concorde in Paris, in an atmosphere of fervor, as Argentina prepared to celebrate the new world champions.
Arrived an hour and a half earlier at Paris airport, the players appeared around 8:30 p.m. GMT on the balcony of the Hôtel Crillon to the cheers of fans, mostly very young, who waved tricolor flags while chanting “Thank you Blues! » and singing The Marseillaise or Gala’s song Freed from Desirewhich became the anthem of the Blues during the World Cup.
50 000 participants
The event took place in a friendly atmosphere. Police, who gave the number of 50,000 attendees, had not reported an incident as of Monday evening. Some had perched on lampposts or traffic lights, to try to see the Blues if only by a hair. The children, the luckiest, had found a perfect place on the shoulders of their parents. Others had chosen the Hotel de la Marine, across the street.
The Blues remained for a long time in front of their supporters who shouted their names, that of Kylian Mbappé being unsurprisingly the most heard, but those who hoped for a speech were disappointed. Before entering the palace, some of them had however reacted for television.
“Power to Commune”
“To be able to commune even if there is no final victory. Vibrating together is something unique”, said Adrien Rabiot at the microphone of TF1, before entering the palace. Captain Hugo Lloris underlined his “pleasure to see so many people”. “I think the most important thing is recognition even if, as an athlete, we would have liked to bring back a gold medal, especially to bring this cup back to France again”said the goalkeeper, face closed, visibly marked by defeat.
The fans were thrilled to have seen their idols. “I had to be there, to thank our Blues for everything they have done so far”said Sandrine Djellas, 53, made up in red and blue, to the sound of fog horns which gave the place a football stadium atmosphere.
Kylian Mbappé, closed face
“Getting together here with everyone is my way of giving them strength”, smiles Cheick Touré, a 16-year-old high school student, keen on football, like his friends who came with him this evening to Place de la Concorde, which began to empty around 9:20 p.m. GMT. Smoke bombs and a few fireworks were fired in the middle of the crowd, but the atmosphere remained good-natured.
As they got off the plane, the coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps had sketched a smile, just like Olivier Giroud, who wore a necklace of blue-white-red flowers around his neck. But Kylian Mbappé, his face closed, had rushed into one of the buses parked on the tarmac before reaching the famous Parisian square.
The Argentines expected in the night
The Blues do not keep the trophy won in 2018 but can be proud of their career. Aware of the enthusiasm it aroused, they had decided, despite the cruel outcome, to commune with their fans, even if the president of the French Football Federation Noël Le Graët had first said the opposite on Monday morning.
The final, called to remain in the legend of football, was played on penalties (4-2) at the end of a crazy scenario: a double from Lionel Messi, best player of the tournament, a hat-trick from Mbappé , top scorer in the competition, and unbreathable extra time (3-3). More than 24 million viewers followed the event on TF1, a “Historic Audience Record” for French television.
The Argentinians should arrive around 02:25 local time (05:25 GMT) at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires, where a small reception was planned, according to an airport source. It was unclear whether the reunion with the fans would take place the same evening with the more than one million Porteños who, until late at night, celebrated the title on Sunday.