The great adventure of the 1998 France team was also marked by very difficult moments.
Linked for life after bringing home the first star at the end of a fantastic adventure, the 22 1998 world champions are also aware of the chance of having been able to represent the nation, at a time when places were already very expensive. Before the tournament organized in France, Aimé Jacquet was one of the first to put together an expanded list. A method which therefore called for last minute exclusions at the dawn of the competition.
Six players were affected by this terrible situation: Nicolas Anelka, Martin Djetou, Ibrahim Ba, Pierre Laigle, Lionel Letizi and Sabri Lamouchi. The latter, who had proven himself in the French championship by being one of the great architects of the Coupe-D1 double for AJ Auxerre two years earlier, was very marked by the announcement of the news. Stéphane Guivarc’h, his former teammate in Burgundy, remembered this memorable moment in the columns of So Foot.
“Ah damn, that hurt my heart”
“There could or even should have been 5 Auxerrois at this World Cup… (with him, Laurent Blanc, Bernard Diomède and Lionel Charbonnier, editor’s note). Sabri Lamouchi was in the room with me, it was terrible. I was lying on my bed, he was packing… There wasn’t a word that came out of my mouth. What did you mean: ‘it’s okay Sabri?’ He knows very well that it is the only one he could have done. He was disfigured. It must still undermine him today, that’s for sure. Ah, the six who left, it’s complicated, eh… He was a very fine player, Sabri. Oh damn, that made my heart hurt. »
Despite this, Sabri Lamouchi was able to bounce back in his football career, before launching with certain success into a new life as a coach. Nicolas Anelka, a young prodigy of the time, also expressed his talent later. But for others, like Ibrahim Ba or Martin Djetou, this episode will remain an unforgettable trauma.
