Why does France harbour optimism for Africa in the World Cup final?
Officially, Africa’s involvement in the World Cup came to an end on June 28 in Samara when Senegal was eliminated by Colombia. However, there is still an African team in the tournament, in the opinion of football fans across the continent. And on Sunday, they take against Croatia in the championship game.
There are at least 15 players of African descent on the French team, and their ancestors are from all over the continent.
Samuel Umtiti was born in Steve Mandanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Cameroun. Paul Pogba’s parents, N’Golo Kanté of Mali, are Guineans. Blaise Matuidi’s parents are from Angola and came to France through the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kylian Mbappé is the son of a Cameroonian father and an Algerian mother. Presnel Kimpembe and Steven Nzonzi’s fathers are from Congo. Corentin Tolisso’s father is from Togoland. The list is lengthy.
These are the associations that players hold dear. Following France’s thrilling 4-3 victory against Argentina in the eighteenth-final, Kimpembe posted a video on Instagram featuring team members, including Pogba, Benjamin Mendy, and Antoine Griezmann, dancing to the song “Seka Seka” by Congolese artist DJ Marechal. The plane takes them to their base camp on Istra. One Twitter user said that it could be shot in a bus headed to Bamako, the Maldives’ capital.
Throughout France’s World Cup journey, African music has been played in the background up until the final stages. The song that is played before every French halftime is “Magic in the Air,” by the Ivoirian band Magic System. The French Football Federation selected it as the official song for team supporters to sing before the game.
The quartet of musicians formed for the French team (led by selector Didier Deschamps) in Clairefontaine prior to their departure for Brazil in the 2014 World Cup, and “Magic in the Air” has been their anthem ever since.
The French national team’s African ties have helped it earn the title of “sixth African team” at the FIFA World Cup 2018, and it has an even greater appeal than the five African teams that competed in the tournament: Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
Pogba, Mbappé, and Umtiti have all been important players for France. FINN FIFE/Getty Pictures
Many African football fans believe that France is more than just an African team made up of African players. They appear to be a pan-African football team.
Being one of the four Cameroonian players to qualify for the World Cup (along with the Swiss trio of François Moubandje, Breel Embolo, and Yvon Mvogo), Umtiti’s performances in Russia were eagerly awaited back home. He scored the game against Belgium, which was sending France to the final, with great joy.
“Especially here in Yaounde, his goal in the semi-final was met with a lot of enthusiasm and passion,” says journalist Njie Enow Ebai of national broadcaster Cameroon Radio Television. Even the headline in one newspaper said, “CAMEROON QUALIFIES FRANCE FOR WORLD CUP FINAL.”
According to Ebai, it comes naturally to Cameroonian football supporters in the French-speaking regions of the nation to back France.
People have a tendency to support the French national team. They identify with that team,” he explains.
“Most of the big bars, pubs, and hotels are showing World Cup games, and you can frequently see people wearing French flags, supporting Les Bleus as they win. Even though Cameroon isn’t playing, you can tell that there is a lot of love for France based on the celebrations.
People in Cameroon have even more motivation to support France because of Mbappe’s Cameroonian heritage. The adolescent’s notoriety has been further bolstered by the fact that he and Samuel Mbappe Leppe, whose exploits in midfield for Oryx Douala in the 1960s made him the first Cameroonian football star, share a surname and physical attributes.
Football supporters have gathered in Mali as well to support Mbappe and France. In Bamoko, allegiances are usually divided between Real Madrid and Barcelona, with supporters of Real Madrid siding with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal and supporters of Barcelona typically rooting for Lionel Messi’s Argentina (at least for the time being). France filled the hole left by the departure of Portugal and Argentina.
The people of Mali had believed that six, not five, countries represent Africa throughout this event. France is the sixth team, according to journalist Amadou Alhousseini Toure, a Mali native.
Because those who are pro-Barca saw Argentina eliminated and those who are pro-Real Madrid saw Portugal eliminated, people are rooting for France more than any other team. Because African athletes play for France, people support them.
As a former French colony, Mali continues to get news from France through agencies including Agence France-Presse, Canal+, and Radio France International. It implies that French club teams—and hence, their players—are even more recognisable to the nation’s football enthusiasts than local teams.
Toure says over the phone from Bamako, “There’s a strong French influence in our media, and people are generally sympathetic towards France.”
“There are historical reasons—the French army’s assistance in the recent reconquest of northern Mali is one example—but there are other factors as well. It’s a well-known football. Watching Ligue 1 matches on TV5, fans are incredibly familiar with the players.
N’Golo Kante VI-Images / Powered by Flickr
The French national team has been popular in Senegal for more than 50 years.
Mamadou Koume, a Dakar-based journalist, adds, “Our parents and our elders followed France in the 1950s via the radio and the newspapers.”
“Many [Senegalese football players] at the time went by nicknames like Just Fontaine, Kopa, Marche, Ujlaki, or Jonquet, after Robert Jonquet, Joseph Ujlaki, or Raymond Kopa.”
Although Belgium used to dominate the Democratic Republic of the Congo, France’s televisual influence has allowed it to blend in with the indigenous way of life.
According to Congolese journalist Dickson Yalla, “there’s a societal influence here because everyone’s hooked up to French television stations.”
In Kinshasa, one out of every three residences will have a Canal+ decoder, indicating a significant French cultural impact and the availability of French news. They are the first national team that Congolese people follow abroad.
Interest in the French national team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) always revolves around the players who have ties to the region—Mandanda, Matuidi, Kimpembe, Nzonzi—but not all of them are perceived equally.
The fact that Mandanda’s younger brother Parfait currently keeps goal for the Democratic Republic of the Congo lessens the blow of Mandanda’s decision to play for France. However, Nzonzi has not been pardoned for turning down the country’s invitations multiple times before, at the age of 28, ultimately earning his first France cap last year.
“Steven Nzonzi is not well-liked. Yalla says, “It’s acceptable for Mandanda, but not for Nzonzi.
Opinions on Steven Nzonzi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are divided. TF-Photos/Getty Photo
There are other athletes with African heritage besides Nzonzi who may attest to the rage of a motherland betrayed. Though opinions of him have since warmed, Mali football supporters once scorned even a player as widely respected as Kante for waiting for a call from France.
After months of speculation, Nabil Fekir chose to play for France in March 2015 rather than his parents’ native nation, which sparked a storm of controversy in Algeria. Although most of France’s former colonies perceive eligibility issues in a grayscale manner, Algeria tends to regard concerns involving the country’s previous colonial masters as black or white.
France has a delicate relationship with Algeria, a country in North Africa that it violently conquered for 132 years, so there isn’t much enthusiasm for Les Bleus there among Francophones.
The majority of people, in my opinion, are against the French national team, said Algiers-based writer Maher Mezahi.
“This is not the most polite thing to say, but for the older generations, seeing the curtain or hearing the melody brings back unpleasant memories.” The younger generations have a stronger attachment to the French team because they haven’t really experienced this and may be fans of Mbappé or Pogba.
The role that Deschamps played in reducing the international careers of Hatem Ben Arfa, a Tunisian national, and Karim Benzema, the two French players of Algerian descent who have been the most successful in the last ten years, have exacerbated anti-French sentiments.
Karim Benzema et Samir Nasri are no longer in the cast. Getty Images/John Berry
After Deschamps failed to qualify Nasri for the World Cup, Nasri announced his international retirement in 2014, and Ben Arfa played his final match for France in November 2015. Benzema’s career as a member of the French team is on hold since the scandal surrounding Mathieu Valbuena’s sextape broke three years ago. Following his participation in the 2016 European Championship, Benzema accused Deschamps of caving in to pressure from a “party raciste de la France.” The French selector pursued Deschamps in court when Eric Cantona implied that he was a racist.
2011 saw Laurent Blanc, Deschamps’ predecessor, become involved in another racial controversy. He was secretly recorded expressing support for quotas that would have restricted the number of non-white football players with dual nationality who are permitted to play for France’s youth representative teams.
Blanc was blacklisted by the FFF, but the controversy exposed how little French football had adhered to the racial harmony ideals embodied in the famous black-blanc-beur motto associated with the 1998 French national team.
Seventy years after winning the title in 1998, France and Deschamps are getting ready for another Cup of the World final involving competitors whose roots reach back to the French Empire.
Les Bleus ont devenu un symbole de l’unité panafricaine au-delà des frontières françaises, mais les problèmes sociaux non résolus du país font que les associations désinvoltes entre réussite sportive et intégration sociale sont désormais généralement évitées. When France steps foot on the pitch to face Croatia on Sunday in Moscow, it will be seen not just by the eyes of a single country but also by those of an entire continent.
