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France is being ranked as one of the favorite contenders for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, starting on June 09, 2006 in Munich, Germany. Popularly referred to as Les Bleus, the present French national football team is one of the strongest football teams in the world, with players like Zinedine Zidane, Claude Makélélé and Lilian Thuram, as backbone of the French squad. France hosted and won the 1998 World Cup, and hoping for a repeat in the FIFA 2006 World Cup in Germany. The current French squad is a mix of experienced campaginers and promising young talents, and certainly have great prospects to win the FIFA 2006 World Cup.
This will be the 12th world cup appearance for the French football team, and manager Raymond Domenech and captain Zinedine Zidane have their squad ready to rumble. | The main players to watch in French team during the 2006 world cup include the names of experienced campaigners like Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram, and emerging young talents like midfielder Rio Antonio Mavuba. The current France football team has world-class strikers in the form of Thierry Henry and David Trézéguet and outstanding midfielders including veterans Zinédine Zidane and Claude Makélélé. Thierry Henry was voted Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers' Association (FWA) for 2005. Going by recent performances of French team, its only weakness seems to be at goalie.
According to latest FIFA World Football Ranking, the French football team was ranked 7th at the end of April 2006. The 32 participating teams in the FIFA 2006 World Cup has been divided into eight groups, and France is placed in Group G, along with Switzerland, South Korea, and Togo. In the 2006 World Cup, France will play its first match against Switzerland on 13th June at Stuttgart, Germany. The French team is expected to show its class in the 2006 World Cup, and advance easily through its group stage into the quarters and finals. With the good talent the current French squad has, it just might repeat its incredible show of the 1998 World Cup.
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