The trauma of November 17, 1993 took a long time to erase for the France team. By losing qualification for the World Cup to the United States in the final moments of their match against Bulgaria, Gérard Houllier’s Blues wrote one of the darkest pages in the history of the Blues. The former PSG coach did not survive and his successor, Aimé Jacquet, was immediately under pressure.
However, his mandate at the head of the French team began with a prestigious success in Italy. But while most of the selections were preparing for the World Cup, the Blues were reduced to playing the Kirin Cup with on the program, not Argentina as expected, but two matches against Australia and Japan. Aimé Jacquet may have only been on the Blues bench for a few months, but he clearly has no room for error.
His marriage before the Blues
However, the former Bordeaux coach does not hesitate to call several novices for this trip to Japan. Fabien Barthez, Christophe Dugarry and Nicolas Ouédec are thus experiencing their first adventure with the Blues. Another novice was to be on the trip: Zinedine Zidane. But as So Foot points out in its issue dedicated to the 1994 World Cup, the native of Marseille did not hesitate to decline the selection to favor his wedding with Veronique organized at the beginning of the summer at the Château du Haillan.
Zinedine Zidane’s big debut with the Blues will wait until August and the visit of the Czech Republic to Bordeaux. In front of his audience, the former Cannes player will treat himself to a dream baptism by scoring a double after
having come into play while Aimé Jacquet’s troops were trailing 2-0.
