France have been very successful in recent years winning the World Cup and European Championships in 1998 and 2000. France had a good 2006 World Cup beating Brazil in the Quarter Finals and Portugal in the Semis only to lose on penalties to Italy in the final.

France were not confident going into the 1998 World Cup with many people wanting manager Jacquet to be sacked before the competition believing they had no chance of winning . They historically defeated Brazil 3 - 0 in the final to win the title in their own country.