Man, I swear, last week I was sitting around with my buddy, Bob, arguing about football—you know how it goes. We got onto the 98 World Cup team, France winning it on home turf. Everyone remembers Zidane, Petit, Barthez. Easy. But Bob, he suddenly got cocky and challenged me to name the full 22-man roster, plus the whole coaching staff. I told him, “Easy, I’ll just look it up.” Famous last words, right?
The Internet is Full of Garbage
I figured a quick Google search would spit out a clean list. Nope. I slammed open my laptop and started typing. What I got back was a mess. One site only listed the starting eleven. Another gave 20 players but missed the two reserves who warmed the bench the whole time. Worse, the coaching staff information was totally inconsistent. Was Lemerre the assistant or just a specialist? Did they even list the physio?
This whole thing ticked me off. How can the record for one of the most famous World Cup wins be so scattered? I had to dig deep, which meant moving past the glossy fan sites and hitting the archives.
Cross-Checking the Names
I spent a solid four hours on this thing, which is four hours I should have been fixing that leaky faucet, but hey, priorities. I pulled up three different historical sports databases. I compared the squad numbers. The big names were fine, but I had to verify guys like Bernard Lama and Alain Boghossian. It’s those fringe players that always get cut from the quick summaries.
The real pain was the staff. I found an old article scanned from a French newspaper (thank God for online archives, even if they look like trash) that clearly listed Aimé Jacquet as the big boss, and Roger Lemerre as his main right-hand man. But then there were the specialized trainers. I had to track down the team doctor, Jean-Marcel Ferret. I wanted the full picture, not just the famous faces.
Mission Accomplished, Full Roster Locked Down
Once I had all the names verified against at least two separate, reasonably trustworthy sources (I’m talking about sites that look like they haven’t updated their design since 2005, which usually means they are dedicated to old data), I put the whole thing together. Bob thought I was crazy for spending so long on a silly bet, but for me, it was about proving the internet wrong and getting the facts straight. And since I did all that work, I wasn’t going to let it sit on my hard drive. That’s why I’m sharing it here. If you ever need to settle a bar argument, here is the gospel truth, messy details and all.
Here’s the complete squad I wrestled out of the internet’s dark corners:
- Goalkeepers: Bernard Lama, Fabien Barthez, Lionel Charbonnier.
- Defenders: Laurent Blanc, Marcel Desailly, Bixente Lizarazu, Lilian Thuram, Frank Leboeuf, Vincent Candela, Martin Djetou.
- Midfielders: Didier Deschamps (Captain), Christian Karembeu, Zinedine Zidane, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Youri Djorkaeff, Alain Boghossian, Robert Pirès.
- Forwards: Stéphane Guivarc’h, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, Christophe Dugarry.
The Staff I Had to Hunt Down
You can’t forget the guys behind the scenes. They were the ones pulling the strings and keeping everyone in shape. It took some serious digging to get these titles exactly right, because every general sports site glosses over them.
- Head Coach (The Gaffer): Aimé Jacquet.
- Assistant/Technical Director (The Right Hand): Roger Lemerre.
- Goalkeeping Coach: Bruno Martini.
- Team Doctor (The important one, keeping them on the pitch): Jean-Marcel Ferret.
Yeah, it took way more effort than it should have, but now it’s documented. Go forth and win your arguments, people!