Ara_sport

France (FRA)

Profile

Founded	1919
Affiliated	1804
WC participations	11 (1930, 1934, 1938, 1954, 1958, 1966, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1998, 2002)
WC honours	World champions (1998)
Continental Titles	2 times European champions (1984, 2000)
Facts France are one of only two teams to have taken part in every qualifying competition thus far. They have gone on to play in 11 out of a possible 17 finals. As hosts in 1998, the Equipe Tricolore claimed the trophy with a 3-0 win against Brazil in the final. The ultimate success may have been a long time in coming, but France were already a notable force in world football. It was a Frenchman, Jules Rimet, who established the FIFA World Cup, and Lucien Laurent scored the first goals in FIFA World Cup history. The French team were devastated in 2002 when as defending champions they fell at the first hurdle, eliminated after a first round in which they neither won a game nor scored a single goal.

Players:

1 LANDREAU Mickael (GK)
2 BOUMSONG Jean-Alain
3 ABIDAL Eric
4 VIEIRA Patrick
5 GALLAS William
6 MAKELELE Claude
7 MALOUDA Florent
8 DHORASOO Vikash
9 CISSE Djibril
10 ZIDANE Zinedine
11 WILTORD Sylvain
12 HENRY Thierry
13 SILVESTRE Mikael
14 SAHA Louis
15 THURAM Lilian
16 BARTHEZ Fabien (GK)
17 GIVET Gael
18 DIARRA Alou
19 SAGNOL Willy
20 TREZEGUET David
21 CHIMBONDA Pascal
22 RIBERY Frank
23 COUPET Gregory (GK)

General Information

FIFA Trigramme: FRA
Country: France
Country (official name): France
Continent: Europe
Capital: Paris
Major cities: Lyon, Marseille, Lille, Toulouse, Nice, Strasbourg, Nantes, Bordeaux, Saint Etienne, Montpellier, Le Havre, Rennes, Reims, Toulon, Grenoble, Brest
Currency: Euro
Official languages: French
Motto: Liberty, equality, fraternity.

Population (in millions): 60.18
GDP per inhabitant (in US dollars): 25,700
Density (inhabitants per km2): 110.01 A
verage age (in years):
Life expectancy at birth (in years): 79.28

Internet code: .fr
Number of internet users: 16.97 million (2002)



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