The day of glory

A word about the work

(BDES001)
12th July 1998. The Brazilian and French teams head onto the pitch to play the Final of the Football World Cup in the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France. The image comes from Bertrand Desprez’s in-depth feature on the French football team. L’Équipe magazine asked him to follow the team everywhere, even between matches, and to tell the story of their adventure during the whole event, with his own particular photographic style.

It was at this moment that things changed. It was with this generation of players, and during this competition that the relationship between players and followers, photographers and journalists, stretched to a distance that is normally reserved for superstars. It had been really hard to follow the team or get anywhere near them to glean a few interesting images. During that month I can’t count the number of times I was called to order because I’d gone outside the designated spaces to try and get an original shot. That month was an adventure but a fight too.

Jean-Denis’s choice

I am more than familiar with all the iconography surrounding this historic moment in French sport. I know all the greatest photos of this final, whether taken by French or foreign photographers. Nevertheless, this is one of my favourites. Bertrand chose to stand well back in order to photograph the players entering the arena, with the immense wall of supporters facing them in the stands opposite. You must also remember that from Clairefontaine in the Yvelines where they were staying, to the Stade de France, the players’ coach had had to make its way through endless crowds. A whole country was expecting them, and believed in them. The expression has often been bandied about, but on that day for most of them it really was the match of their lives. The pressure is tangible, Zidane taking deep breaths, the Brazilian players holding hands. This photo brings it all back. I think it is one of the great photos of the final, and therefore one of the great photos of French sporting history. It sums up and portrays this exceptional moment that anyone who lived through it remembers. One for eternity. An original from a great memory. Goose bumps guaranteed forever.