The composition of the French national football team has recently become the subject of intense, often xenophobic, political debate. Former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy claimed in an opinion piece for the Spanish online news site El Debate that France’s national football team had "no French players." This remark was swiftly condemned by Spain's current Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who labeled the comment as "xenophobic."
These remarks echo similar sentiments expressed by Paraguayan Senator Celeste Amarilla. Following Paraguay's elimination by France in the round of 16, Amarilla claimed that star player Kylian Mbappé was a "colonised Cameroonian who has really pretended to be French." Her commentary continued in a series of social media posts, where she described Mbappé as a "product of colonialism" and used derogatory language, claiming he was "resentful, nouveau riche, arrogant and ugly." In a second, even more inflammatory post, she wrote: "Bruto hasn’t even learnt to write; instead of his mother’s milk, he suckled coconuts, and the most cultured beings he’s ever heard were chimpanzees.
You should have given him the middle finger, Orlando Gill; I do it in the Senate and nothing happens!!!" Amarilla has since deleted these posts, and a criminal investigation has been launched in France regarding her comments.
Beyond these specific attacks, various other far-right figures have dismissed the French team as "paper Frenchmen." Additionally, British right-wing politician and Brexit supporter Daniel Hannan shared a comment, allegedly from a French friend, which described a France versus Sénégal match as "the legal immigrants playing the illegal ones."
To address the validity of these claims, it is necessary to look at the facts. FIFA regulations require that all players hold citizenship in the country they represent, and every member of the French squad holds a French passport. There are no restrictions on players holding dual nationality. Of the 26-man French squad, 23 were born in France. The three players born outside of France are Marcus Thuram, Michael Olise, and Brice Samba.
Marcus Thuram was born in Italy while his father, Lilian Thuram, was playing for the Italian club Parma. Lilian Thuram, who is from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, later moved back to France with his family, where Marcus spent his formative years in the Paris suburbs. Michael Olise was born and raised in England to a British-Nigerian father and a French-Algerian mother.
Although he began his career in the UK at Reading, he chose to represent France. Brice Samba, the goalkeeper, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and moved to France as a child with his family, beginning his football career in the youth side in Le Havre. He is the only naturalised French citizen on the team; the rest are French from birth.
The remaining members of the squad were born and raised in France, speak French as their first language, and spent their formative years in the country. Captain Kylian Mbappé was born and raised in the Paris suburb of Bondy, as was his mother, who is French-Algerian. His father emigrated to France from Cameroon when he was one year old and has lived in France ever since.
Some players, such as Désiré Doué, hold dual nationality. Doué was born in Angers to a French mother and an Ivorian father. His brother, Guéla, played for Côte d'Ivoire in the same tournament. During a pre-World Cup friendly between the two nations, Guéla was seen enthusiastically joining in the singing of "La Marseillaise," to the delight of French fans.
Critics argue that the questioning of the team's nationality is rooted in race, noting that white second-generation immigrants—such as far-right politician Jordan Bardella, whose mother was born in Italy—are rarely subjected to such scrutiny. Naima Moutchou, France's minister for overseas territories, condemned the rhetoric as evidence of "systematic and widespread hatred of France and what the nation is." She added, "Every time Les Bleus win, the same racist obsessions and insults re-emerge." This phenomenon is not new; the 1998 World Cup-winning squad, which was notably racially mixed, was also denounced by Jean-Marie Le Pen as "paper Frenchmen."
