The public of the Stade de France vibrated on Sunday. Three days after their fully missed match in Croatia, the Blues spilled the checkered team, winning 2-0 in turn before winning their qualification for the semi-finals of the League of Nations on penalties.
The evening was also the occasion for a beautiful tribute to Olivier Giroud, eight months after the announcement of his international retirement. Accompanied by his children, the top scorer in the history of the French team saw his jersey join the CEINTS of the Stade de France alongside other old glories of the selection like Zinedine Zidane, Hugo Lloris, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram, Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly and Patrick Vieira.
The French Football Federation has indeed decided to create a Hall of Fame from the French team bringing together all the players displaying more than 100 selections. A choice that did not fail to react since it excludes the old legends of the Blues that are Raymond Kopa or Michel Platini.
After Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann
“I am not in favor of this criterion of the hundred selections. If we have less, we no longer exist? There is a certain sensitivity to take into account. We must not forget the past, the first great gentlemen of French football, Just Fontaine and Raymond Kopa, the Michel Platini generation … When I see players evolve, I do not think of their number of selections ”, thus regretted Luis Fernandez to the team.
And the bell sound is the same on the side of Maxime Bossis, another member of the Platini generation, European champion in 1984 and twice semi-finalist of the World Cup. “It is good to pay tribute, but the criterion is biased because internationals can play a lot of matches today compared to the 80s. It is easier to reach 100, which does not detract from their merit, he blown.
I am not looking for glory or notoriety, and this hall of Fame is a very good idea, but it would have been necessary to study other criteria. There, it takes away any possibility of honoring the entire Kopa generation or ours. »»
But the ancients can be reassured. The entry criteria for this Hall of Fame should quickly evolve. “The jersey of Antoine Griezmann (137 selections) will appear when a tribute will be paid to him but also those of very great players who have marked history as Michel Platini, Just Fontaine or Raymond Kopa, it is obvious, and other alumni according to criteria that we will soon define”announced Philippe Diallo, the president of the 3F.
