Gareth Southgate’s choice to announce a pre-list of thirty-three English players for Euro 2024 brought back a painful episode for the 1998 France team.
Euro 2024, organized in Germany from June 14 to July 14, is fast approaching. For several days, the various coaches of the qualified nations have revealed their lists. With more or less names. So, when Didier Deschamps called up twenty-five players for the Blues, Gareth Southgate pushed the cursor up to thirty-three. If the English tactician still has until June 7 to send his reduced list of twenty-six players maximum to UEFA, he has awakened a painful memory relating to the France team.
The affair is now known to everyone in its smallest details. While he prepared for the 1998 World Cup with a voluntarily enlarged group, Aimé Jacquet announced to six players that they would not be part of the World Cup adventure. Exfiltrated in the middle of the night, Lionel Letizi, Martin Djetou, Sabri Lamouchi, Nicolas Anelka, Pierre Laigle and Ibrahim Ba were marked by this very painful experience, all of which was reinforced a few weeks later by the historic coronation of the Blues.
Laurent Blanc didn’t like
This episode came back to Vincent Duluc’s mind on Wednesday, when discussing the famous list of Three Lions. The journalist of The Team thus remembered this period and the consequences for the Blues. “ At the level of the French team, historically, in 98, Aimé Jacquet had removed the famous six of the night, (…) and suddenly two years later for the Euro, Roger Lemerre had done the opposite. He had given a first list of eleven or twelve, or thirteen, and he had added two, then three, then two, depending on the end of the season, because he had precisely found that the guys had been too traumatized by this which happened in 98. »
A statement confirmed on set by his colleague Dominique Sévérac: “ Laurent Blanc said it after 98. He said he didn’t like the moment they left. » Gareth Southgate therefore made the choice made by Aimé Jacquet twenty-six years ago. The English players who will return home a few days before the Euro should therefore have a complicated time.
