Tri-colour welcome for World Cup heroes

The World Cup-winning French team returned home to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, parading down the Champs Elysees.

Kylian Mbappe and his teammates celebrate on the open-top bus in Paris

The World Cup-winning French team returned home to a heroes’ welcome yesterday, parading down the Champs Elysees as thousands of cheering fans gave a raucous welcome to the country’s newest idols.

After overcoming a determined Croatia to win 4-2 in the final in Russia, the team came back to euphoric crowds in Paris hoping to catch a glimpse of the players that have captured the nation’s imagination.

The footballers did not disappoint, passing the golden World Cup trophy from player to player as they jumped and danced on an open-topped bus.

The parade was under heavy police guard, with 2000 officers deployed in the capital to ensure the safety of the estimated 300,000 people who turned up.

Above the partying crowds, nine jets from the Patrouille de France, the air force’s acrobatic unit, did a flyover trailing blue, white and red smoke.

After leaving the Champs Elysees, the players changed into custom-made blue suits before being welcomed at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte.

Macron has already promised the players the Legion of Honour, an award given to the legendary team that won France’s first World Cup title in 1998.

“Thanks to you all!” Macron said. “This team is beautiful because you are united!”

Midfielder Paul Pogba, despite his voice nearly failing him, then proved himself a showman off the pitch as well as on by leading the guests in an impromptu celebratory rap punctuated by “Allez less Bleus!”

Nearly 3000 guests were received in the Elysee gardens, including about 1000 young players from local football clubs such as Bondy, the gritty Paris suburb whose towering housing blocks produced rising star forward Kylian Mbappe. Some of the children even got to touch the famed trophy, which captain Hugo Lloris handed around.

Mbappe, who applied the coup de grace in the final to cement his place as a new global superstar at just 19, said he had achieved what he had set out to do — win the World Cup.

“We are proud to make the French happy,” he said.

Some analysts believe Macron will benefit from the feel-good factor sweeping France, with the President able to show a common touch after months of criticism from his opponents that he is distant and elitist.

Commentators have also focused on the outpouring of patriotism and sense of national unity created by the multi-ethnic French team, many of whose stars including Pogba and Mbappe hail from deprived and often overlooked suburbs of Paris.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Croatians took to the streets in Zagreb to greet their players. A crowd estimated at more than 550,000 people cheered the team during its parade on an open-top bus from the airport to the capital’s main square.

AFP