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As patriotic speeches go, a French thief’s cry in a Bordeaux courtroom Wednesday as he was being led off to begin an eight-month prison sentence lacked the immortal ring of Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!”
But when he chose for his last words as a free man a shout of “Go France!” he expressed an interesting shift in the attitude of the French on the eve of the World Cup soccer final.
When they think of sports, the French value individual panache over the faceless sweatiness of collective labor.
Indeed, France has conferred heroic status upon tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, skier Jean-Claude Killy, sailor Eric Taberly and winners of the grueling Tour de France bicycle race, while almost disdaining the national soccer team.
But with “Les Bleus” preparing to play Brazil on Sunday at the Stade de France for the championship of the world’s most popular sport, the French are lining up behind their team in unprecedented numbers and with new passion.
After France’s 2-1 semifinal victory over Croatia on Wednesday, seen here by a record TV audience of nearly 17.7 million, a crowd estimated at 350,000 flocked to the Champs Elysees, filling the horizon from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde.
In a scene compared to those after the liberation of Paris from the Nazis in 1944, Parisians shed their reserve and painted their faces bleu, blanc et rouge--the colors of the flag--and piled into cars, onto in-line skates and atop lampposts to form a roiling sea of happy humanity.
Encompassing all ages and racial backgrounds, they chanted, “Thuram president!” in honor of defender Lilian Thuram, who scored both goals against Croatia. They did the wave. They set off firecrackers. In every part of the city, streets that had been deserted at the game’s 9 p.m. kickoff were full of cars with horns blaring and flags flying.
“Parisians, I would say, they are halfway about football,” said Benito Ramis, who owns a small grocery store on the Avenue de Friedland, a few blocks from the Champs Elysees. “But when France wins, they are a little more interested. They are very interested now. It has been a great World Cup for France.”
In truth, the French were slow to go from spectators to supporters. Until France’s quarterfinal victory over Italy, everyone seemed to be waiting for France to fail.
Fans exulted in Bordeaux and Marseilles, but to Parisians, those are the provinces. Country bumpkins might dance in the streets, but sophisticated Parisians went on with their lives, hardly acknowledging the World Cup.
Then victories over Italy and Croatia, fraught with tension, apparently piqued Parisians’ attention.
Perhaps the catalyst was the team’s gutsy effort in defeating Paraguay in the round of 16 without star midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who was suspended for fouling in a first-round match. Or maybe it was the nerve-racking penalty-kick victory over Italy.
But suddenly, newsstands could not stock enough copies of L’Equipe, the daily sports newspaper, and football became a hot topic in the Metro, in bars and in the streets.
“Some people say Parisians are a little blase, but I think not,” said Serge Boura, who runs a newsstand on the Rue de Montenotte. “I have heard them talking a lot about the World Cup, especially with the French team doing so well. I have clients who come every morning and talk about nothing else. . . . I think people are becoming more and more interested.”
That includes women, who traditionally do not avidly follow sports in France.
Melanie Livertout, a bank official, acknowledged that she was lured aboard the bandwagon after she and her husband invited friends to their apartment to watch the Croatia game.
“It was incredible,” she said. “What heart the team showed. It’s not often you see something like that. I think everyone had to admire them.”
The World Cup is no sideshow in Paris now.
In the cafes that line the broad sidewalks of the Champs Elysees, fans nursing espressos held up signs, begging to buy tickets. In a passageway beneath the Champs Elysees where posters are sold, displayed between those of Leonardo DiCaprio and Homer Simpson was one of Zidane in mid-stride.
On Friday, a banner was unfurled on the walls of the National Assembly urging, “Allez La France [Go France].”
Still, France’s conversion is not complete.
Players complained that the crowd at the Stade de France for the Croatia game wasn’t lively enough and feared that French fans would be drowned out Sunday by the lively, music-making Brazilians.
“People come to the stadium like it’s the theater,” team captain Didier Deschamps said. “We saw guys in black suits, like they were going to a funeral. This isn’t in the spirit of the World Cup. I don’t know how to loosen them up.”
Teammate Frank LeBoeuf suggested a ban on suits and ties, which he called “an insult to football.”
A guide to soccer for the World Cup illiterate is on The Times’ Web site at: https://www.latimes.com/worldcup
