French football fans were kept guessing on Monday whether they would get a chance to meet the national team on its return from Qatar where they lost to Argentina in a nail-biting World Cup final.
Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said early Monday that the team planned to go to the Place de la Concorde in the French capital after their plane touches down at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) at Charles de Gaulle Airport.
“They want to go to thank their supporters, to spend some time on Place de la Concorde which they have chosen in theory with the French Football Federation,” she told France Inter radio.
But within hours, the chief of France’s football federation FFF contradicted the minister, saying the players would head home straight from the airport.
“When you don’t win you don’t feel like wandering down the Champs Elysees or anywhere else,” Noel Le Graet told the BFMTV broadcaster, in reference to the glamorous avenue running from Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe.
“They have been away for more than a month and they did a good job. They want to go home as quickly as possible,” he said.
But that statement was, in turn, thrown into doubt shortly afterwards when BFMTV, citing sources in the national team’s communication team, said the team would show up after all.
The players would greet their fans around 8:30 pm (1930 GMT), according to those sources.
France lost on penalties on Sunday after the score ended 3-3 following extra time, but French commentators still heaped praise on the defeated side, while highlighting the crucial role of Argentinian captain Lionel Messi.
“Invited to the coronation of Lionel Messi, Les Bleus were heroic,” said L’Equipe sports newspaper.
The match was dominated by Argentina for the first 80 minutes before a quickfire double by Kylian Mbappe ignited France. Mbappe went on to score a third goal and become only the second player in history to grab a hat-trick in a World Cup final
“Proud of our Bleus,” read a headline on the front page of Le Parisien newspaper with a picture of the team standing together during the penalty shootout.
“Football is often more than a sport. In the run up to Christmas, this World Cup has been a magnificent present,” the right-wing newspaper Le Figaro said in an editorial.
A total of 24.08 million people watched the match on Sunday on TF1 television, an all-time record audience for a French network, the channel said.
The interior ministry said that 227 people were arrested in France after the game, with 47 in Paris.
