The modern era of international soccer has been dominated by France, plain and simple.<\/p>\n
The team has captured two World Cup titles (1998, 2018), two UEFA European Championships (1984, 2000) and also claimed the 2021 UEFA Nations League. France also nearly won back-to-back World Cups, losing to Argentina in penalties in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 2026 roster features a plethora of talent, headlined by arguably the best player in the world in Kylian Mbapp\u00e9. The superstar became just the second player ever to record a hat-trick in a World Cup final match, joining England’s Geoff Hurst who did so in 1966.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s everything you need to know about France\u2019s national team:<\/p>\n
How they Qualified:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n France secured qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup by finishing top of their UEFA Group D, thus earning a direct berth to the finals without needing to go through the playoff round. The team sealed their spot with a convincing 4-0 victory over Ukraine, which confirmed a finish as group winners.<\/p>\n World Cup Group Stage Schedule:<\/strong><\/p>\n Previous World Cup appearances:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n What is France’s Best Finish in the World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>\n Who’ll be France’s Key Players at the World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>\n Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 is France\u2019s most accomplished active player and became the national team\u2019s captain after the 2022 World Cup. He won the Golden Boot at that tournament with eight goals, including a hat trick in the final, and played a key role in France\u2019s 2018 World Cup title. At club level, he has won multiple Ligue 1 titles with Paris Saint-Germain, was named Ligue 1 Player of the Year several times, and completed a high-profile move to Real Madrid ahead of the 2024\u201325 season. He needs five goals to pass Mirsolave Klose (16) for the most career World Cup goals. \u00a0<\/p>\n Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 is a winger\/forward for Paris Saint\u2011Germain and a senior regular for the France national football team. He won the Ballon d\u2019Or in 2025 after helping PSG win the UEFA Champions League, Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France in a dominant domestic and European campaign.<\/p>\n William Saliba is a central defender for Arsenal and has become one of France\u2019s regular starters after making his senior debut in 2022. He has been part of France\u2019s squads for the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 and played a major role in Arsenal\u2019s title-challenging seasons, earning Premier League Team of the Season honors. Saliba has also logged Champions League experience and remains one of France\u2019s most used defenders during the 2026 qualifying cycle.<\/p>\n Who is France’s Manager for the World Cup?<\/strong><\/p>\n Didier Deschamps has been the manager of the French national team since 2012, making him one of the longest-tenured coaches in international soccer. He led France to the 2018 World Cup title, the 2022 World Cup final, and the 2021 UEFA Nations League championship, becoming one of the few people to win the World Cup both as a player (1998) and as a manager. Under his leadership, France has consistently reached the latter stages of major tournaments while developing one of the deepest player pools in the world. Deschamps was retained after Euro 2024 to guide the team through the 2026 World Cup cycle.<\/p>\n France’s All-Time Leading Scorer:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n France’s All-Time Caps Leader:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n France Team Nickname:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n About the country:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Want great stories delivered right to your inbox?\u00a0<\/i>Create or log in to your FOX Sports account<\/u><\/i> and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY The modern era of international soccer has been dominated by France, plain and simple. The team has captured two World Cup titles (1998, 2018), two UEFA European Championships (1984, 2000) and also claimed the 2021 UEFA Nations League. France also nearly won back-to-back World Cups, losing to Argentina in penalties in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}