Okay, so the other day, I got this urge, you know? Thinking about the good old days of football. Specifically, that legendary France ’98 team. It just popped into my head, and I thought, “Right, let’s see if I can actually remember the whole squad.” It wasn’t for anything important, just a little challenge for myself.
Getting Started – The Brain Dump
First thing I did, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. Old school, I know. I just started writing down names as they came to me. Zidane, obviously, was the first one. Easy peasy. Then Deschamps, the captain. Barthez in goal, with that bald head. Thuram, Blanc… yeah, the big names started flowing pretty quickly. Henry, Trezeguet – the young guns back then. Petit, Vieira in midfield. Lizarazu, Desailly at the back. It felt good, like jogging an old memory muscle.
Hitting the Wall & Doing Some Digging
But then, I kinda hit a wall. I had maybe 15 or 16 names? I knew I was missing some. Especially the backup players, the ones who didn’t play every single game. Who was the backup keeper? Lama? Charbonnier? Both? Uh oh. And some defenders or midfielders were fuzzy. Karembeu! Yes, got him. But still felt short.
So, I had to cheat a little. Fired up the computer. Didn’t go straight to a list, though. Tried searching for match reports from the final, semi-final. See who was on the bench. That helped jog a few more memories. Saw names like Boghossian, Pires, Diomède. Ah, Bernard Diomède, tricky winger!
Putting It All Together
Finally, I decided to just look up the official squad list to check my work and fill in the gaps. Had to make sure I got all 22 players right. Cross-referenced my scribbled list with what I found online. Yep, missed a couple like Candela and Guivarc’h (how could I forget him, starting the final?!). Organizing it helped too.
Here’s what I ended up with, the full squad remembered and verified:
The Final List – France 1998 World Cup Squad
- Goalkeepers: Fabien Barthez, Lionel Charbonnier, Bernard Lama
- Defenders: Vincent Candela, Marcel Desailly, Frank Leboeuf, Bixente Lizarazu, Lilian Thuram, Laurent Blanc
- Midfielders: Alain Boghossian, Didier Deschamps (Captain), Christian Karembeu, Emmanuel Petit, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Zinedine Zidane, Youri Djorkaeff
- Forwards: Bernard Diomède, Christophe Dugarry, Stéphane Guivarc’h, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet
Took a bit longer than I thought it would! Funny how you remember some instantly and others take real digging. It was a fun little exercise, though. Brought back some great memories of that summer. What a team they had.
