Unsurprisingly, “1998 will remain the biggest disappointment of my career” for Pierre Laigle. The former left-hander of RC Lens and OL, who celebrates his 56th birthday this Saturday, is one of the six players removed from the French team in the middle of preparation for the 98 World Cup organized in France, which Zinédine Zidane’s Blues won on July 12 at the Stade de France in the final against Brazil (3-0). Lionel Leitzi, Martin Djetou, Sabri Lamouchi, Ibrahim Ba and Nicolas Anelka are the others banned from Clairefontaine.
Pierre Laigle missed out on the chance of his career, when he was part of the French group throughout 1997. Left side of Sampdoria, in the great Serie A of the time, the Northerner trained with the Sang et Or started in the friendly match of November 97 against Scotland (2-1), scoring his only international goal and causing the penalty converted by Youri Djorkaeff. But the future Lyonnais (he will be left relay for Les Gones) was overtaken by Vincent Candela, left piston of Roma, versatile because he is right-handed, but also friend of “Zizou”.
Pierre Laigle during France-Scotland seven months before the 1998 World Cup.
Aimé Jacquet in Pierre Laigle’s viewfinder
The six excluded took the announcement made by Aimé Jacquet very badly after dinner, in the coach’s room, and all wanted to leave the castle in the evening even though the staff had asked them to stay until breakfast the next day. Many years later, Pierre Laigle still does not understand the coach’s approach to having summoned 28 players only to dismiss six after two weeks… “It wasn’t the best way to do it to take 28 players and then discard six. There is a feeling of having been taken for a stopgap, because I am convinced that Jacquet already had his group in mind and that it was written”he says in an interview with So Foot in 2021.
2002 French champion with OL (scoring the last goal in the “final” against Lens), Laigle was only recalled once to the Blues by Roger Lemerre. He then participated in the gatherings of the France 98 collective before no longer answering the call, explaining: “At each France 98 gathering, it was basically complicated, we didn’t talk about this moment when the six were excluded. The group knows well that it had been painful, we should not rub salt in the wound. With Aimé Jacquet, we never talked about it again. » The failure of a lifetime, certainly.
