PELITA DAILY — The evening of 12 July 1998 was a unique and unforgettable night for French football.

Flags flew and a nation celebrated as one as Les Bleus became world champions for the first time in their history.

Following their disappointment in the 1980s World Cup and their failure to even qualify for Italy 1990 and USA 1994, it was an extraordinary achievement.

If, in the hours and minutes leading up to kick-off against Brazil that night, you told fans and players that winning France 1998 meant never lifting the World Cup again, many of them would have accepted such a deal.

However, so much has changed in the last 24 years, that even the French fans celebrating on that warm July night would not have believed that Les Bleus might make an appearance in three of the next six World Cup Finals.

And who can blame them? After all, France had never achieved one before 1998. To fight four times in the space of 24 years would be beyond their wildest dreams. However, here we are.

With the exception of disappointing group stages at Korea/Japan 2002 and South Africa 2010, France has outlasted everyone else on the global stage in the last two decades or so, contesting in as many as the last seven Finals as world heavyweights Brazil and Germany.

combined. Now the Qatar 2022 World Cup can France carve out new history so that the trophy that once resided in France, returns to France. Let’s just wait for Sunday 18 December 2022. ●Editor/FIFA