It's a story that still haunts French football. On May 22, 1998, on the eve of the World Cup, six players were excluded from the final list. A trauma for those involved, one of whom has always had the feeling of having been the victim of an injustice, of a settling of scores. This player is Ibrahim Ba. And the person responsible for his ouster, according to him, is none other than the captain at the time: Didier Deschamps.
The hidden side of Deschamps: how he influenced the list of 98
It all starts with an Italian championship match, Juventus-Milan. Ba, then at AC Milan, protests to the referee. Deschamps, captain of Juve, intervenes and throws him a ” Shut your mouth ! ». The altercation continues in front of AimĂ© Jacquet, the coach of the Blues. “Is that how you talk to your captain?” »would then have thrown DD at him. For Ba, mass was said.
This anecdote, revealed by the player himself, gives substance to a fantasy that has long haunted Deschamps: that of a player with disproportionate power, a true “lieutenant” of Jacquet, capable of influencing his choices. A thesis recently relaunched by Emmanuel Petit, who asserted that “Didier and Canto were never great friends,” and that Ginola “ should have made the World Cup.”
A “puzzle” without the strong heads?
Other excluded players at the time, like Martin Djetou, also pointed out the influence of “executives” in the coach's decisions. Deschamps, Desailly… they would have put pressure to remove competition deemed too threatening.
Of course, Aimé Jacquet has always assumed his choices, speaking of
“field criteria”. And history has proven him right. But this Ibrahim Ba affair sheds harsh light behind the scenes of an epic which was not as smooth as we wanted to believe. It tells the story of a man, Didier Deschamps, who, even back then, knew perfectly how to build “the best puzzle”, even if it meant discarding the pieces that didn't suit him.
