The team of newly crowned World Cup champion France will be given a special honor.
Paris (SID) – As the office of French President Emmanuel Macron announced just before the return of the Equipe Tricolore in Paris , the team is awarded the French Order of Merit of the Legion of Honor , the country’s highest honor. A date for the solemn ceremony is not yet known.
The national team landed on Monday afternoon shortly before 17.00 clock at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport . Two and a half hours later, the crew and their entire staff met in the smoke-filled boulevard Champs-Elysees. Thousands of fans had arrived early along the boulevard.
The players and the coach presented the golden trophy from the upper deck of a bus to their fans – much like the 1998 World Champions, who boasted about 1.5 million people on the boulevard. Immediately afterwards, President Emmanuel Macron received the victorious team at the Elysee Palace.
Macron appealed in front of 3,000 guests in the garden of the palace in a short and emotional speech: “Do not change anything! This team is great because it’s a unit.”
The French put on the crown of world football for the second time on Sunday after beating the surprise team Croatia 4-2 on 1998. Coach Didier Deschamps is only the third coach after the Brazilians Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer, who was able to lift the golden World Cup trophy as a player and coach in the air.