“Context Is Everything:” How France’s World Cup Success Sparked a Flawed Debate on Multiculturalism
By Marcel Thompson ‘22
On July 15th 2018, after a month of enthralling competition in Russia, the French National team won the FIFA World Cup with a 4-2 final win over Croatia in Moscow. This victory crowned a team of twenty-three players, a staff, and a federation, but beyond that, marked the success of a young generation of athletes—the second youngest team to win the World Cup since Pele’s 1970 triumphant Brazil—from multiple backgrounds and representative of the country’s diversity. This diversity, however, was criticized and mocked repeatedly by nationalist politicians, talk show hosts, and various people through social media who argued that this was not France’s victory but Africa’s.
“Africa won the World Cup,” was one of the most popular claims on social media after France’s victory. It started after the group stage. When all five African teams who qualified for the World Cup failed to access the round of 16, one of Burkina Faso’s newspapers, Le Pays, argued that France was the 6th African team and that “African France” would “avenge Africa” during the rest of the tournament. “Many put their hopes in this French Team, named by Africans, with a certain sense of humor, ‘6th African team,’ because of the origins of many French players,” wrote the newspaper. Despite the argument being made in this article with the intention to put forward the success of France’s “multiracial civilization,” it spurred a global movement of people praising an African victory and denouncing France’s opportunism.
One of the most striking examples was Trevor Noah’s segment on the World Cup, where he introduced France’s final win by chanting “Africa won the world cup,” restating the humor previously made about France being “Africa’s backup team.” This was undoubtedly a joke and wasn’t meant to offend the French people, but rather to provoke them.
It certainly did. A day later, Trevor Noah shared with his audience a letter from the French ambassador. “Unlike the United States of America, France does not refer to its citizens based on their race, religion, or origin,” wrote the ambassador. “By calling them ‘African team’ it seems you are denying their frenchness,” read Noah with an imitation of a French accent and an angry tone that probably did not reflect neither the French ambassador’s English nor his inflection. The ambassador then wrote that “the rich and various backgrounds of these players are the reflection of France’s diversity” to which Noah replied, “it’s of a reflection of France’s colonialism.” He went on by saying, legitimately enough—himself being both South African and Swiss and living in a different land than his birthplace—that these players could be both French and African and that people from all over the continent celebrated the victory for a reason. Noah was absolutely right in pointing out that France’s diversity is mainly due to its colonial past and that Africans had moved to France mainly because a culture and a language had been imposed to them. The talk show host accurately observed the African origins of many of the French soccer players, but his previous comment that “Africa won the World Cup” contradicted his own comment regarding France’s biculturalism. In fact, he completely misread France’s identity breakdown.
“I believe context is everything.” That is what Trevor Noah said to his audience in conclusion of his argument, defending his joke by explaining that he had the legitimacy to make it being from African descent. He is right and he is inclined to make jokes on certain matters others should not make. But context is everything, and Noah missed several points about the context of France’s World Cup victory. The fact is that France’s relationship with background and race is drastically different from the United States’, as the French ambassador pointed out in his letter, because its history and culture are different.
Noah probably didn’t know or at least didn’t mention it in his segment, but France won the World Cup in 1998 and faced another issue on the subject of its team’s diversity. The multiculturalism of the French team was then seen as an opportunity by many French politicians and the media for political recovery and the promotion of a cultural ideal. A “Black, Blanc, Beur” France (“Black, White, Arab” in English) was the main motto after the triumph, as Zinédine Zidane’s picture – a player of Algerian descent born and raised in Marseille— was screened on the Arc de Triomphe with people chanting, “Zidane for President.” Around his figure and the French team, the myth of a unified diverse country, not under the flag “Bleu, Blanc, Rouge”—“Blue, White, Red”—but under the colors “Black, Blanc, Beur” was born. But the myth was deeply romanticized. France was only united for a night, where all ethnic, cultural and social boundaries were forgotten and time seemed suspended. The reality that followed was both the uprising of nationalism which led to far-right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen winning the presidential first-round in 2002, and the collapse of a hyper-politicized French national team drawn away from its main purpose of playing football.
Since that time, France’s team has had major scandals, controversies, and sport crises. The most resounding ones have been the players’ strike during the 2010 World Cup, involving media and politicians attacking the team’s attitude and respect of their country; and in 2015, Karim Benzema claiming that manager Didier Deschamps was “influenced by a racist part of France” after he decided not to have Benzema in the team anymore following a sex tape scandal. Much of France’s road to victory since 1998 has been a rollercoaster. But 2016 marked the beginning of a new era. Following the French loss against Portugal in the Euro Cup played in France, the team reconquered the public’s heart. No more illusions of a “Black, Blanc, Beur” France, but rather the concrete promise of a golden generation, led by its figureheads: Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann, and Kylian Mbappé. This 2018 World Cup success crowned a team that reinvented itself in the last years without always having the support of the French people. This victory wasn’t about “black, blanc, beur”; it didn’t have a socio-political message to it. The French people learned from their mistakes and didn’t lure themselves. There was no need to perpetuate a myth this time, but rather a collective will to remember that this generation of French players had represented the country at its best.
Trevor Noah’s defense was neither right nor wrong; he simply lacked context and did not weigh his words and their importance in regards to the socio-political relationship of a country and its national team. Unintentionally, Noah contributed to a global movement of nationalist and far-left political actors making serious arguments that Africa, and not France, had won the World Cup. The most notorious case was Venezuela’s controversial president, Nicolás Maduro, claimed that “Africa was the real world cup winner.” Many others then seized the opportunity to delegitimize France’s victory and spread racist comments on social media.
But the response to those assumptions was best brought by the French athletes of African descent. Already the day before the final, in response to foreign journalists’ inquiries about the team’s diversity during a press conference, Paul Pogba declared: “That's France. There are many origins here. That's what makes France beautiful.” When the debate took a whole other turn after France had won the World Cup, French athletes from all sports started showing their opinion on the matter, and it was unanimous. French star NBA player from Algerian descent, Evan Fournier, tweeted, “Stop it with this ‘Africa won the world cup for France’ nonsense. Is it Africa winning when the USA win Gold medals in the Olympics? Is it Europe winning when South Africa wins in Rugby? And we can go on and on. Cut the BS. We are all French, deal with it.” While the debate was still raging on social media, Sportf –a notorious soccer twitter account with 1.22 million followers— posted the names of the French players with their country of origin’s flag next to them and wrote underneath, “All together as one for France,” to which the left-back for the French national team and 2018 World Cup champion, Benjamin Mendy, answered by posting the names of the French players with the French flag next to them and wrote underneath, “fixed,” to put an end to the polemic. This World Cup did not create a new illusion of a myth. Rather, the victory motivated players to speak up and reaffirm their attachment to France: their country, the one they fought for to add a second star to the crest.
Cited Sources:
Afp. “'Africa Real World Cup Winners', Says Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro.” TimesLIVE, TimesLIVE, www.timeslive.co.za/sport/soccer/2018-07-18-africa-real-world-cup-winners-says-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro/.
“‘L'Afrique a Gagné La Coupe Du Monde’, a Déclaré Trevor Noah Dans Le Daily Show.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 July 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqmJwdULBQ.
“Vu Du Burkina Faso. Vive La France, ‘Sixième Équipe Africaine’ Du Mondial !” Courrier International, 3 July 2018, www.courrierinternational.com/revue-de-presse/vu-du-burkina-faso-vive-la-france-sixieme-equipe-africaine-du-mondial.
“Trevor Responds to Criticism from the French Ambassador - Between The Scenes | The Daily Show.” YouTube, YouTube, 18 July 2018,