Sacre Bleu

Remember when Zinedine Zidane lifted the World Cup in 1998? Kylian Mbappe doesn't. The gifted young forward wasn't born when the French team became world champions for the first time. But it was Mbappe's unique talent that helped France to reach the summit of world football once again in 2018, erasing years of failure, rancour and shame.These two crowning achievements made Les Bleus the envy of the world, but the road between these two highs was blighted by bitterly painful lows. Zidane's headbutt; a players' strike; infighting and recriminations; even sex scandals and blackmail. This was also a turbulent time for French society, as the promise of racial harmony in 1998 gave way to rising tensions and riots.Mbappe witnessed it all, honing his prodigious talent in the banlieues of Paris as the nation threatened to implode. His story embodies France's journey from disaster to triumph; football's hottest new property growing up in a troubled neighbourhood and inspiring a divided country on and off the pitch.In Sacre Bleu, Matthew Spiro traces the rise, fall and rise again of Les Bleus through the lens of Kylian Mbappe. Featuring a foreword by Arsene Wenger and interviews with leading figures in French football, including Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Emmanuel Petit, Robert Pires and Olivier Giroud, Spiro asks what went wrong for France and what, ultimately, went right.

"Winning the World Cup in 1998 was the highlight of my career. In this brilliant book, Matt Spiro captures the significance of that event and explains how it changed football in France for ever." - Frank Leboeuf, former France international "When I lived in France in the early 1990s I am not sure that I would have predicted the effect that the country would have not only on UK football, but on global football. Certainly, when they made such a mess of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup, winning the next one seemed a long way off. Having worked with Matt many times, it is no surprise that he has perfectly captured the essence of this beautiful country and its beautiful game." - Mark Chapman, broadcaster "A detailed and sensitive account of France's turbulent journey from one World Cup triumph to another; a fascinating story of football but also of far wider issues." - Jonathan Wilson, The Guardian "Glory, influence and the sheer volume of talent are clear themes of French football over the past twenty-five years. Matt Spiro goes deeper and covers the complications of culture and race, too. This is a book about modern France as well as modern French football." - Michael Walker, The Athletic "During my six seasons in France I saw the way Les Bleus brought an entire nation together. When they won the World Cup in 1998, I was kissing my teammates at pre-season training, thinking I was French. This fantastic book brings back some wonderful, vivid memories and truly encapsulates the complex relationship France has with football." - Tony Cascarino, former Marseille, Nancy and Republic of Ireland striker "An amazing tale... Spiro skilfully traces the emergence of world-class players from city ghettos imbued with strife through a volcanic mix of inhabitants from former French colonies." - Eric Brown, Sports Journalists' Association "A brilliantly insightful and entertaining read." - Jon Spurling, FourFourTwo

MATTHEW SPIRO is a French football expert who has covered Les Bleus at major tournaments for the past two decades. A British journalist and broadcaster, he moved to Paris in 2002, collaborating with the BBC, UEFA.com, the Irish Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, IMG and Canal+. Matthew has been in charge of Ligue 1's global television coverage at BeIN Sports since 2012. He is the Ligue 1 world feed's lead commentator and presents the Ligue 1 Show, which is broadcast in more than 150 countries, including by BT Sport in the UK.