Montpellier was the place to be on Wednesday. Not for the sun, or the sandy beaches, nor the fine cuisine and local wines. And not even because this beautiful southern town is reputed to have one of the most attractive populations in France, thanks to its three universities. No, there was a football match taking place, and it wasn’t the usual second-division fare served up by the locals.
France played a friendly against the Côte d’Ivoire team of Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure, and the game marked one of the most remarkable U-turns in the history of international football.
A little more than a year after they retired from the France team following a catastrophic Euro 2004, Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram pulled on the blue shirt once again.
But will the return of the three ageing musketeers — a combined age of 98 — provide a significant boost to a France side struggling to qualify for next year’s World Cup? Or will all the brouhaha that surrounded their comeback, particularly that of ”mystic” Zidane, simply add to the problems faced by beleaguered manager Raymond Domenech, who next month takes his team to Lansdowne Road for a crucial qualifier with Ireland?
Domenech finds himself with a selection headache, however excellent Zidane, Makelele and Thuram clearly are. The three elder statesmen are not coming back just to sit on the bench, so the coach is virtually obliged to pick them. That means reshuffling the whole team, changing tactics and dumping some of the youngsters he had drafted in. Despite claiming he is happy to have such players available again, the fact remains that Domenech did little to persuade them to stay when he took over from Jacques Santini in 2004. Indeed, some close to the French camp say he did all he could to make sure they hung up their international boots.
From the outset, Domenech seemed determined to make conditions less comfortable for the senior players.
From having shared facilities during his 10-year stint with the under-21s, he saw how things were at the national training centre in Clairefontaine and decided the set-up needed to change. Players wielded too much power. Friends and agents were banned. Out, too, went several long-serving backroom staff, including players’ confidant Henri Emile, and Zidane’s favourite osteopath, Philippe Boixel.
The signs were clear. Domenech even took three weeks to get round to telephoning Zidane, even though the Real Madrid star was publicly wondering about his international future.
With Marcel Desailly and Bixente Lizarazu also standing down after Euro 2004, where the French lost ignominiously to Greece in the quarterfinals, Domenech had space in which to rebuild. Sadly for him, things quickly went pear-shaped. The older players didn’t take kindly to some of the new ways.
Fabien Barthez failed to see the point of performing a 2.30am post-match inquest after the first match of the Domenech era. Invited to stand up one after the other to share their thoughts, Barthez rose only to exclaim: ”I have nothing to say.” Robert Pires found himself excluded after he complained about Domenech in the French press, which persuaded other experienced players to waffle politely in public while bitching behind the scenes.
”Domenech’s a prat, and we haven’t got a clue what he’s going on about half the time,” one World Cup winner told me.
France’s results under Domenech have been dreadful. Goalless draws at home to Israel, Ireland and Switzerland left Les Bleus with an uphill task to emerge from a group that should have been well within their grasp. The only wins in his 10 games in charge came against Cyprus and the Faroe Islands, plus a scrappy friendly win over Hungary. Critics say Domenech is tactically naive, out of touch with the reality of modern football after all those years with the under-21s and has been too obsessed with rejuvenating the team.
An eminently likeable, educated man who loves the theatre, is interested by astrology and has a wicked sense of humour, Domenech has begun to lose the twinkle in his eye that used to characterise him. He has given up cracking jokes in his press conferences and prefers instead to lay trails of red herrings for a frustrated press pack. Asked recently who he thinks is the most natural left-back in his current squad, Domenech replied: ”William Gallas.”
He knew full well that the right-footed Chelsea defender hates playing there. ”Obtuse” doesn’t do this man justice.
To this backdrop, then, came the return of Zidane, Makelele and Thuram. The return of Zidane, France’s favourite man in last year’s traditional poll, was such a surprise that even one of his best pals, Christophe Dugarry, couldn’t believe it.
Contacted by sports daily L’Equipe for a reaction, Dugarry told the paper not to run the story because somebody must have pirated Zidane’s website.
The story remained front-page news in France for three days, and then returned to page one the following week when ”Zizou”, as he is affectionately known, gave a strange explanation for his volte-face. He woke up suddenly one night at 3am and spoke with someone, he told France Football magazine.
”What happened was a bit mystic, irrational even,” Zidane said. ”It was a real person, but it all seemed so distant. I had something akin to a revelation, I had this sudden desire to go back to my roots.”
Mischievously mocked by half the country since, Zidane decided to tell us his interlocutor was in fact his brother and that from now on he would be keeping his mouth shut. The fact Makelele and Thuram returned to the France fold at the same time as Zidane is no coincidence. Zidane has been Makelele’s number-one fan since their days together at Real Madrid. Makelele’s role in that team was described in France as: ”Win the ball and give it to Zizou.”
Makelele said he had several long phone conversations with Zidane before taking what was in the end a joint decision. Thuram was also part of those discussions.
But while Makelele and Zidane expressed their delight, the Juventus centre-back was less expansive about his return. ”Domenech called me up, so I have to go,” said the 33-year-old Guadeloupe native. ”It’s my duty.”
The game took place against the backdrop of political tension between the two countries. The world’s top cocoa producer, Côte d’Ivoire is divided between northern-based rebels, who attempted to topple president Laurent Gbagbo in 2003, and the government-controlled south. A UN peacekeeping force of 6 000 troops and a French force of 4 000 more heavily armed soldiers under separate command try to keep the two apart.
Violence erupted in November of last year, following a surprise strike by Ivorian government warplanes that killed nine French peacekeepers and an American aid worker. Gbagbo said the attack was an accident. The French said it wasn’t and retaliated, wiping out the Ivorian air force — two jets and a few helicopters.
The situation deteriorated. Supporters of Gbagbo went on a rampage, looting and burning businesses belonging to French expatriates and forcing French and other Western governments to evacuate their nationals. Then the Ivorian government accused the French forces of shooting unarmed demonstrators. Paris denied the charges, only to admit later its soldiers killed 20 protesters in front of a hotel.
Ivorians say the number was three times that, and France’s own Human Rights League agreed.
The players hope the match can help pave the way to better relations between France and its former colony. The teams have never met before and weren’t supposed to now. Originally, France had a game with Argentina at the Stade de France. After the Argentines pulled out because of the timing, Senegal stepped in. And then stepped out again last month following disputes at their national federation, much to the annoyance of their players.
For Drogba, it was an opportunity to be seized. ”It’s a chance to use sport to build bridges,” the Chelsea striker said before the game. ”We want to get a result that will help set us up for our World Cup game with Cameroon next month. That’s the one that really counts.”
Côte d’Ivoire are one win away from their first World Cup qualification. Victory at home to Cameroon on September 4, and the Elephants will be packing their trunks for Germany 2006. A draw with Cameroon and victory over last-placed Sudan in the final qualifier would also be good enough. Drogba told me Côte d’Ivoire has ”at the very least the potential to be the next Senegal”. — Â