Why France’s Victory Matters
Liberalism triumphed over a history of ethno-nationalism
As a long-time fan of Les Bleus, I was rooting for France right from the start of this year’s World Cup. But it wasn’t until I saw Emmanuel Macron jump on a table in the VIP section at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium that I realized the importance of France’s victory. This was no mere football match. This was a Jesse Owens-in-Munich moment in sports history.
As a Canadian of largely French descent and a lifelong Francophile, France has always been an easy team for me to get behind. Though my ancestry is at least as much English as French, I could never quite get fully behind the St. George squad because their fans are so historically awful. Come World Cup time, I invariably cheer for the breakthrough underdog (this year it was Iceland), Japan (my second home), and France. The French always put on an electrifying show — think Brazilian-style soccer without the gratuitous dives.
But there’s another reason for my longstanding love of Les Bleus. For American readers who don’t follow soccer, a useful analogy could be made between the French team and baseball’s Brooklyn/LA Dodgers. France fielded its first ever black player back in 1931 (the legendary French Guiana-born defender Raoul Diagne), more than half a century before Viv Anderson would break the English…
