Football fails to hide the malaise at the heart of Europe
Sport makes the mistake of thinking it can actually transcend life
It was back in 1998, in the northern Parisian suburb of Saint Denis, a team representing both the oppressive past and difficult present of France was cheaply said to have united the fifth republic. Of the squad that won the World Cup were Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry, Christian Karembeu and Bernard Diomède of Caribbean descent, Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly and Senegalese-born Patrick Vieira. And while the then far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen ...