They win. Then they implode. Then they reach a World Cup final while everyone back home is arguing about whether the manager is a genius or a dinosaur. That’s the football French national team in a nutshell. It’s never just about the goals; it's about the drama, the strikes on the bus, and that weird, almost arrogant ability to look terrible for eighty minutes before Kylian Mbappé decides he’s bored and scores a hat-trick.
If you’re looking for a team that plays "the right way" with a clear, tiki-taka philosophy, you’re looking in the wrong place. France doesn't care about your possession stats. Didier Deschamps, the man who has held the reins since 2012, has built a machine designed to suffer, absorb pressure, and then kill you on the break. It’s effective. It’s also incredibly frustrating for fans who want to see the most talented roster in Europe actually play like it.
The Deschamps Paradox and the football French national team
People call him "The Lucky One." In France, they talk about La Chatte à Dédé—basically, Deschamps' luck. But you don't stay in one of the highest-pressure jobs in sports for over a decade just because the ball bounces your way. He’s a pragmatist. While other nations are obsessed with high lines and inverted fullbacks, the football French national team under Deschamps has often looked like a throwback.
Think about the 2018 World Cup. They had Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, and a teenage Mbappé. Did they dominate? Not really. They ground out results. They let teams think they had a chance and then hit them with the clinical efficiency of a high-end guillotine. It’s a style that relies heavily on individual brilliance within a very rigid defensive structure.
But here is the weird part. When the individual brilliance isn't there—or when the ego in the dressing room gets too big—the whole thing falls apart. We saw it in Euro 2020 (played in 2021) against Switzerland. They were 3-1 up. They looked invincible. Then, the midfield stopped tracking back, the defense crumbled, and suddenly they were out on penalties. The line between "tactical masterclass" and "total disaster" is thinner for France than for any other major nation.
The Mbappé Era: It's his world now
We have to talk about Kylian. Since that breakout summer in Russia, the football French national team has essentially become the Kylian Mbappé show. And why wouldn't it? The guy is a freak of nature. But his influence goes beyond the pitch. When he fell out with Olivier Giroud over a "lack of passes" or when he got into a standoff with the French Football Federation (FFF) over image rights, it sent shockwaves through the camp.
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Most teams would crumble under that kind of internal noise. France just eats it for breakfast.
Deschamps has had to manage a massive shift in power. For years, the team was built around the selflessness of players like Blaise Matuidi and the work rate of N'Golo Kanté. Now, it's about maximizing a global superstar. This shift has changed the identity of the football French national team. They are no longer the gritty underdogs of the mid-90s; they are the Galacticos of international football, for better or worse.
Why they keep producing elite talent (The Clairefontaine Secret)
How does one country keep producing this many players? Seriously. If France lost their entire starting eleven tomorrow, their "B" team would still probably make the quarter-finals of a major tournament.
It’s the system.
The French academy system, spearheaded by the famous Clairefontaine, is a factory. But it’s not just about technical drills. It’s about the banlieues. The suburbs of Paris are currently the greatest talent pool in the world, surpassing even the favelas of Brazil. Players like Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, and more recently, Kingsley Coman and William Saliba, all came out of these concrete jungles.
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- They play small-sided games.
- They develop insane technical skills in tight spaces.
- They have a physical toughness that comes from playing on asphalt.
This urban scouting network is the real reason the football French national team stays at the top. While other countries are struggling to find one decent center-back, France has about eight world-class options sitting on the bench.
The Midfield Identity Crisis
Losing the Pogba-Kanté duo was supposed to be the end of an era. It kind of was. That pairing was the perfect engine. Pogba provided the vision, and Kanté provided... well, everything else. Watching the football French national team try to replace that has been fascinating.
Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga are the future, but they play a different game. They are more technical, more "Real Madrid" in their composure. But do they have that same "dog" in them that the 2018 squad had? Sometimes it feels like this new generation is almost too polished. They play beautiful football, but in the muddy trenches of a knockout game, you sometimes miss the chaos that the older guard brought to the table.
The Shadow of 1998 and 2006
You can't understand this team without knowing the history. 1998 was the "Black-Blanc-Beur" (Black-White-Arab) dream—a symbol of national unity that didn't actually last very long. Then came the 2006 heartbreak, Zidane’s headbutt, and the 2010 Knysna bus strike where the players literally refused to train.
That 2010 disaster is still the benchmark for failure. Every time the football French national team has a bad result, the French media starts looking for signs of another mutiny. It’s a permanent state of trauma.
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Deschamps' greatest achievement isn't the trophies; it's the fact that he stopped the players from killing each other. He prioritized "group life" over pure talent. It’s why Karim Benzema was out of the picture for years. It’s why certain players get picked even when they aren't playing well for their clubs. If you mess with the vibe, you're out.
What’s next for the Les Bleus?
The landscape of international football is shifting. Spain has moved toward a more direct version of their passing game. England finally looks like they know how to kick a ball. But the football French national team remains the team to beat simply because of their ceiling.
Their ceiling is higher than anyone else's.
When they are "on," they are unplayable. The transition from the old guard (Giroud, Griezmann) to the new wave (Barcola, Zaïre-Emery) is happening right now. It won't be seamless. There will be games where they look bored. There will be games where the French press calls for Deschamps' head. But as long as the talent keeps flowing from the Parisian suburbs, they aren't going anywhere.
How to actually follow this team (without losing your mind)
If you want to keep up with the football French national team like a pro, you have to look past the scorelines.
- Watch the off-the-ball movement of the wingers. In the French system, the wingers often tuck in to become second strikers, which is why they score so many goals on the counter.
- Follow L'Équipe. Even if you don't speak French, use a translator. The French sports media is brutal and often knows about locker room drama three days before it hits the English press.
- Don't overreact to friendlies. France is notorious for "sleepwalking" through non-competitive games. They save their energy for the big stages.
- Pay attention to the youth levels. Watch the France U-21s. Half of that squad will be in the senior team within eighteen months. That’s just how fast the conveyor belt moves.
Keep an eye on the tactical shifts in the Nations League. That’s where Deschamps usually experiments with new defensive pairings before reverting to his "safe" 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 for the major tournaments. The most important thing to remember is that with France, the football is only half the story. The rest is a soap opera that just happens to be played by some of the best athletes on the planet.