Sacre Bleu
Regular price
€23.99
A01=Matthew Spiro
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Matthew Spiro
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGS
Category=DNBS
Category=SFBC
Category=WSJA
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Pre-order
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_sports-fitness
Language_English
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9781785905544
- Dimensions: 135 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2020
- Publisher: Biteback Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Remember when Zinedine Zidane lifted the World Cup in 1998? Kylian Mbappe doesn't. The gifted young forward wasn't born when the French team became world champions for the first time. But it was Mbappe's unique talent that helped France to reach the summit of world football once again in 2018, erasing years of failure, rancour and shame.
These two crowning achievements made Les Bleus the envy of the world, but the road between these two highs was blighted by bitterly painful lows. Zidane's headbutt; a players' strike; infighting and recriminations; even sex scandals and blackmail. This was also a turbulent time for French society, as the promise of racial harmony in 1998 gave way to rising tensions and riots.
Mbappe witnessed it all, honing his prodigious talent in the banlieues of Paris as the nation threatened to implode. His story embodies France's journey from disaster to triumph; football's hottest new property growing up in a troubled neighbourhood and inspiring a divided country on and off the pitch.
In Sacre Bleu, Matthew Spiro traces the rise, fall and rise again of Les Bleus through the lens of Kylian Mbappe. Featuring a foreword by Arsene Wenger and interviews with leading figures in French football, including Marcel Desailly, Lilian Thuram, Emmanuel Petit, Robert Pires and Olivier Giroud, Spiro asks what went wrong for France and what, ultimately, went right.
MATTHEW SPIRO is a French football expert who has covered Les Bleus at major tournaments for the past two decades. A British journalist and broadcaster, he moved to Paris in 2002, collaborating with the BBC, UEFA.com, the Irish Times, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, IMG and Canal+. Matthew has been in charge of Ligue 1's global television coverage at BeIN Sports since 2012. He is the Ligue 1 world feed's lead commentator and presents the Ligue 1 Show, which is broadcast in more than 150 countries, including by BT Sport in the UK.
