History is impossible to rewrite: the French team might never have won the 98 World Cup if it was led by its star strikers from the 90s, namely Eric Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin and David Ginola. Aimé Jacquet cut it to the chase: the coach of the Blues, who was aiming for the 1998 World Cup in France from his induction in January 1994 (first as an interim), built his offensive sector around Zinédine Zidane and Youri Djorkaeff.
“Canto”, “JPP” and “Gino” were all sidelined, for various reasons, in the run-up to Euro 1996 in England. It was Patrice Loko and Christophe Dugarry who shared the center forward position for the Blues, ahead of “Zizou” and “The Snake”, and with a certain Mickaël Madar as the third central attacker. A generous player, pivot par excellence, he had a good 1995-1996 season with AS Monaco under the orders of Jean Tigana.
Madar thus accompanied his Monegasque teammates Fabien Barthez, Lilian Thuram and Éric Di Meco (but not his friend Emmanuel Petit, not selected at the time) during the 1996 European Championship, without playing a single minute. Aimé Jacquet apologizes to the player, who enjoyed living in the French group, and keeps Mickaël Madar in his little papers.
The 98 final, Madar cried
After a mixed spell at La Coruna, the striker relaunched from January 1998 at Everton, scoring 6 goals in 17 Premier League matches. It’s too late. He will not be part of the 22 for the World Cup nor the six excluded (Nicolas Anelka was the striker sidelined just before the tournament). The future PSG player was in the preselection of 40 players. Stéphane Guivarc’h and David Trezeguet were the group’s two professional center forwards, with a versatile Christophe Dugarry.
Invited on RMC to talk about his 98 World Cup, Micka Madar, who is celebrating his 57th birthday, explained: “I cried all evening. I was all alone at home in England. I only saw the second part of the finale, because I was on the plane. I experienced this when I arrived, until I don’t know what time in the morning. I watched everything that was happening on all the channels. As much as I was happy and happy for all my friends, I was sad not to be part of this group because, when you haven’t won the World Cup, it’s for life. Honestly, yes, I cried about it. »
