Can France put an end to the World Cup curse?
In recent FIFA World Cup history, there has a been trend that has affected European nations that have won the tournament.
It began with France who won the World Cup in 1998 and was knocked out in the group stage in 2002. Then, in 2006, Italy famously won following the Zinedine Zidane headbutt, but in 2010 they looked like amateurs in South Africa and departed at the opening stage.
Spain dominated in 2010 at the world cup as well as rounding up back-to-back Euros wins, yet still were knocked out in the groups of 2014. The most recent victims were the German team in 2018 after winning football's greatest prize in 2014.
As we look ahead to the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, France is once again in the spotlight and there are hopes that they can put an end to the trend that they started 20 years ago. In fact, Bodog, where you can enjoy the best World Cup odds for the showpiece event this winter, has them as one of the favourites as 6/1, even with the recent off-the-field difficulties.
Didier Deschamps was forced into many changes when naming his Nations League squad for the game taking place prior to the World Cup.
The France national setup offers one of the strongest pools of talent in the world and there will never be a shortage of exceptional options on offer regardless of how many unfortunate injuries Deschamps has to deal with. All of the nations to suffer the 'World Cup winners curse' had one thing in common and that was that they did not evolve and remained loyal to their former heroes, even if their ability had declined.
France will have to adapt if they are to be successful at the tournament, and it looks like fate is intervening to ensure they do just that.