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Va-Va-Voom: The Modern History of French Football
'Excellent' – Simon Kuper, author of the bestselling FOOTBALL AGAINST THE ENEMY
'The definitive story of how French football came of age' – Christian Karembeu
'Erudite and engrossing' – Vincent Duluc, lead football writer, L'ÉQUIPE
THE PLAYERS, THE TEAMS, THE GOALS, THE GAMES, THE SCANDALS, THE GLOOM AND THE THE STORY OF FRENCH FOOTBALL'S CHEQUERED COMING OF AGE OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS.
French football is an a puzzling jumble of brilliance and farce, flair and frailty, stunning success and abject failure. Its domestic league is mocked on social media as an uncompetitive 'Farmers League' and its clubs derided for underachieving in European competition. But France have reached four of the past seven men's World Cup finals, French players star week in, week out for the world's grandest clubs and the very best of French football – the roar of the Vélodrome, the glamour of the Parc des Princes, the shimmering brilliance of Zinédine Zidane, Éric Cantona and Kylian Mbappé – stands comparison with anything the sport has to offer. When it comes to scandal, meanwhile, the French are the best in the business, be it sensational match-fixing affairs, squabbles over sex tapes or meltdowns within the national squad.
In this fascinating and exhaustively researched book, the first of its kind in the English language, Tom Williams brings to life French football's chequered coming of age over the last 40 years. He details how the starry-eyed romanticism that characterised the national team in the early 1980s gave way to an Italian-style pragmatism that would lead Les Bleus to the summit of the international game in the late 1990s, and examines how a succession of star-studded club sides grappled with the thorny (and distinctly un-French) notion of how to win. By delving into French football's rich history, he also explains the myriad ways – tactical, technical and cultural – in which France has shaped the game's evolution around the world.
Featuring exclusive interviews with great figures of the French game such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Emmanuel Petit and Blaise Matuidi, and with a cast of characters that also includes Michel Platini, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Chris Waddle and Lionel Messi, it's a book no football fan will want to miss.
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'A comprehensive account of the highs, lows and scandals of French football' – Jonathan Wilson, author of the bestselling INVERTING THE PYRAMID
'The definitive story of how French football came of age' – Christian Karembeu
'Erudite and engrossing' – Vincent Duluc, lead football writer, L'ÉQUIPE
THE PLAYERS, THE TEAMS, THE GOALS, THE GAMES, THE SCANDALS, THE GLOOM AND THE THE STORY OF FRENCH FOOTBALL'S CHEQUERED COMING OF AGE OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS.
French football is an a puzzling jumble of brilliance and farce, flair and frailty, stunning success and abject failure. Its domestic league is mocked on social media as an uncompetitive 'Farmers League' and its clubs derided for underachieving in European competition. But France have reached four of the past seven men's World Cup finals, French players star week in, week out for the world's grandest clubs and the very best of French football – the roar of the Vélodrome, the glamour of the Parc des Princes, the shimmering brilliance of Zinédine Zidane, Éric Cantona and Kylian Mbappé – stands comparison with anything the sport has to offer. When it comes to scandal, meanwhile, the French are the best in the business, be it sensational match-fixing affairs, squabbles over sex tapes or meltdowns within the national squad.
In this fascinating and exhaustively researched book, the first of its kind in the English language, Tom Williams brings to life French football's chequered coming of age over the last 40 years. He details how the starry-eyed romanticism that characterised the national team in the early 1980s gave way to an Italian-style pragmatism that would lead Les Bleus to the summit of the international game in the late 1990s, and examines how a succession of star-studded club sides grappled with the thorny (and distinctly un-French) notion of how to win. By delving into French football's rich history, he also explains the myriad ways – tactical, technical and cultural – in which France has shaped the game's evolution around the world.
Featuring exclusive interviews with great figures of the French game such as Alain Giresse, Jean-Pierre Papin, Emmanuel Petit and Blaise Matuidi, and with a cast of characters that also includes Michel Platini, Thierry Henry, Karim Benzema, Chris Waddle and Lionel Messi, it's a book no football fan will want to miss.
----
'A comprehensive account of the highs, lows and scandals of French football' – Jonathan Wilson, author of the bestselling INVERTING THE PYRAMID
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2024
24 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
Tom Williams
3 books23 followersTom Williams is a football writer and broadcaster who lives in London. Specialising in French and English football, he has had writing published by The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and The Athletic. He is the resident Premier League expert on Canal+ in France and a regular guest on the UK's leading football podcast, The Totally Football Show. He is the author of Do You Speak Football? and Va-Va-Voom.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 6, 2025
4.5 Stars!
“France had won. France could win. Once considered ‘the world champions of friendly matches’, so long convinced of their own inferiority compared to the leading football nations, France has taken on the best and beaten them all. Nobody in the country aged under 60 had ever seen anything like it.”
Such was the reaction when the French national team eventually got their hands on the World Cup back in 1998. Williams described the squad as, “A 22-man rainbow nation, shining symbol of modern, multiracial, multicultural France.” The sheer range and variety of cultures and nations which made up their 98 World Cup side was truly extraordinary and surely must remain the most multi-cultural side ever to lift the trophy.
This is how you write this kind of footballing history, Williams has pulled off a beautiful balance of knowledge, passion accessibility, opening up with a great introduction, he packs this book with so much history, trivia and back story which makes for a warm, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable modern history of the French game.
“High tax rates, meanwhile, made it significantly more complicated for French clubs to offer the kind of salaries available in Europe’s other leading football countries. When the Bosman ruling was passed in 1995, France’s leading talents left the league in droves. France also regulated its football clubs more strictly than its continental neighbours, having in 1990 become the first country to set up an independent financial watchdog.”
Williams focuses on many of the stars and talents which have emerged from the modern French game over the last five decades or so, particularly the likes of those charismatic boys from Marseille like Zinedine Zidane and Eric “A storm seeking a port” Cantona. But of course there’s also room for the likes of Tigana, Platini, Papin, Ginola, Henry, Trezeguet, Lizarazu, Thuram, Vieira, Djorkaeff, Deschamps, Pires, Petit, Wiltord, Nasri, Ribery, Benzema, Mbappe and so many other world class players who have brought so much to the game across the world. I also have to thank the author for drawing my attention to the novelty French pop single from 1991 by Basil Boli & Chris Waddle “We’ve Got A Feeling”…Even better than “Diamond Lights”?...
“Va-Va Voom” gives you a renewed and informed appreciation for the sheer impact the French have made on the institutions of the global game – as well as being responsible for coming up with the ideas for the World Cup, European Championships and the European Cup – they have made so many indelible stamps and helped shaped so much of the architecture of the modern game.
Of course we cannot ignore the rampant culture of cheating and corruption which has also plagued so many aspects of the Francophonic realms. Whether it be the blatant cheating of Marseille’s 1993 Champions League win and their stolen league titles to the likes of the sheer arrogance and pomposity of figures like Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini – Platini in particular was also found guilty of corruption earlier on in his career as a player – so it comes as no surprise to learn that both of his parents were Italian.
This book also gave me a renewed respect and appreciation for the French and their enduring sense of solidarity and unity and the way they consistently stand-up for what they believe in, following it through with meaningful actions – which I suppose is why they ended up with 1789 and the likes of the UK is burdened with embarrassingly antiquated ideas and bloated parasites like the House of Lords and the royal family. Anyway this is great stuff and a real treat of a read!
July 13, 2025
Va-Va-Voom: The Modern History of French Football (2024) by Tom Williams is a very readable account of the transformation of French football. Prior to the 1980s French football was a European backwater while today France has won two World Cups, two Euros and is a world powerhouse. Williams is a football journalist who has written for many publications, appears on The Totally Football Show and is an expert on French and British football.
Va-Va-Voom covers French football in a series of roughly chronological chapters that cover the French national team in various tournaments, many French clubs and French players in particular leagues around Europe. There is also a chapter on the rise of the OL Lyonnes women’s team.
There are chapters on Auxerre, Lyon, Bordeaux, the generation of English players in France including Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle, Marseille, PSG and more. There are also chapters on Platini, Jean Pierre Papin and Thierry Henry. The chapters on French players in Italy, England and Germany are interesting as Williams interviews players who talk about what they learned in the various leagues. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal also get a chapter. Williams makes the point that French managers excluding Wenger are not as widespread as their players. Nor are they as widespread as Spanish, Italian or Portuguese managers.
Va-Va-Voom is very much worth reading for anyone interested in football around the world. It’s also very topical now that PSG have just (2025) won the Champions League and are playing in the World Club Cup final in which they are firm favourites.
Va-Va-Voom covers French football in a series of roughly chronological chapters that cover the French national team in various tournaments, many French clubs and French players in particular leagues around Europe. There is also a chapter on the rise of the OL Lyonnes women’s team.
There are chapters on Auxerre, Lyon, Bordeaux, the generation of English players in France including Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle, Marseille, PSG and more. There are also chapters on Platini, Jean Pierre Papin and Thierry Henry. The chapters on French players in Italy, England and Germany are interesting as Williams interviews players who talk about what they learned in the various leagues. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal also get a chapter. Williams makes the point that French managers excluding Wenger are not as widespread as their players. Nor are they as widespread as Spanish, Italian or Portuguese managers.
Va-Va-Voom is very much worth reading for anyone interested in football around the world. It’s also very topical now that PSG have just (2025) won the Champions League and are playing in the World Club Cup final in which they are firm favourites.
March 28, 2025
Cool history of French football. ‘98 France World Cup win is one of my first memories of watching football. Reading about French football legends was super cool. Wish there was more tactical insight during different periods.
October 12, 2024
4.5 stars.
'A farmer's league'. 'Marred by scandal'. 'Lacking cultural weight'.
These are just some of the phrases most frequently synonymous with French football. And yes, they are all true to some extent. With the lowest viewing figures of any of Europe's 'Top 5' leagues, a seeming penchant for problematic characters and an often inward-facing sense of one step forward, one step back, it's hard to argue with the cynical narrative that many of us football fans have accepted.
But there's more to the story here, and we're lucky that we have a storyteller as diligent and compelling as Tom Williams to guide us. 'Va Va Voom' is an erudite, fabulously well-researched and fluid history of French football since the 1960s, honing in on the domestic league and the international team's progress and dynamic shifts over the ensuing decades. Drawing on interviews and perspectives from those at various echelons of the game, he confirms that the French game is almost infinitely more interesting, confounding, frustrating and weighty than is often presumed.
Williams manages to combine humanism and context with remarkable ease. He's just as adept at talking about the building blocks of the modern game in the 1930s as he is on taking a magnifying glass to specific clubs, players and figureheads. He's effortlessly forensic whether he's discussing Michele Platini's famed free-kick expertise or Bernard Tapie's seismic, eventually disastrous (not to mention criminal) tenure as owner of Marseilles. And he's constantly threading the teams' happenings and players back to their existential place in French society.
Sure, there's the sensationalism of the aforementioned Tapie era, a well-documented and depressing story of bullying, alleged doping and corruption. There's plenty about Platini's ecstatic tenure at Juventus, Zinedine Zidane being 'more Brazilian than the Brazilians', the 1998 World Cup triumph and the salacious history of French footballers in England.
The real delights come in the form of the ground less covered. Chris Waddle being the unsuspecting pinpoint for of a sense of celebrity rarely seen in French football before his stint at Marseilles in the early 1990s. In the chapter about Auxerre, he documents the life story of Guy Roux, who went from playing football under Nazi occupation in 1943 to coaching at the age of 21 to being perhaps the club's most iconic entity. And Marie-Lou Dourringa Eckhert, who helped establish the women's game from a tiny Alsatian village in the 60s and would later become the first woman to sit on the French Football Federation (FFF)'s advisory council.
He manages to cram an impressive amount of context about the women's game in France into 'Le Foot Feminine: Lyon Light the Way', and happily he doesn't shy away from giving them their dues; Lyon's women's team, he asserts, are not only the most successful French football club of all time but also 'one of the most dominant teams in the history of world sport'.
The book also falls into disappointing predictability, however, when discussing some of the horrific scandals that have consumed certain players in the modern game. Williams mostly glosses over the nightmarish activities undertaken by the likes of Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa and Frank Ribery, making his clear passion for the progress of the women's game feel slightly hollow.
Despite those shortcomings, 'Va Va Voom' is an exhaustive and scintillating read. He manages to bring new light to well-warn paths, unveil incredible stories and histories and keep tabs on how French football has just as much history to offer as any other major sporting institution. Will it change ardent football fans' minds about French football? Perhaps not. But it is almost exactly the kind of nuanced history the game deserved.
'A farmer's league'. 'Marred by scandal'. 'Lacking cultural weight'.
These are just some of the phrases most frequently synonymous with French football. And yes, they are all true to some extent. With the lowest viewing figures of any of Europe's 'Top 5' leagues, a seeming penchant for problematic characters and an often inward-facing sense of one step forward, one step back, it's hard to argue with the cynical narrative that many of us football fans have accepted.
But there's more to the story here, and we're lucky that we have a storyteller as diligent and compelling as Tom Williams to guide us. 'Va Va Voom' is an erudite, fabulously well-researched and fluid history of French football since the 1960s, honing in on the domestic league and the international team's progress and dynamic shifts over the ensuing decades. Drawing on interviews and perspectives from those at various echelons of the game, he confirms that the French game is almost infinitely more interesting, confounding, frustrating and weighty than is often presumed.
Williams manages to combine humanism and context with remarkable ease. He's just as adept at talking about the building blocks of the modern game in the 1930s as he is on taking a magnifying glass to specific clubs, players and figureheads. He's effortlessly forensic whether he's discussing Michele Platini's famed free-kick expertise or Bernard Tapie's seismic, eventually disastrous (not to mention criminal) tenure as owner of Marseilles. And he's constantly threading the teams' happenings and players back to their existential place in French society.
Sure, there's the sensationalism of the aforementioned Tapie era, a well-documented and depressing story of bullying, alleged doping and corruption. There's plenty about Platini's ecstatic tenure at Juventus, Zinedine Zidane being 'more Brazilian than the Brazilians', the 1998 World Cup triumph and the salacious history of French footballers in England.
The real delights come in the form of the ground less covered. Chris Waddle being the unsuspecting pinpoint for of a sense of celebrity rarely seen in French football before his stint at Marseilles in the early 1990s. In the chapter about Auxerre, he documents the life story of Guy Roux, who went from playing football under Nazi occupation in 1943 to coaching at the age of 21 to being perhaps the club's most iconic entity. And Marie-Lou Dourringa Eckhert, who helped establish the women's game from a tiny Alsatian village in the 60s and would later become the first woman to sit on the French Football Federation (FFF)'s advisory council.
He manages to cram an impressive amount of context about the women's game in France into 'Le Foot Feminine: Lyon Light the Way', and happily he doesn't shy away from giving them their dues; Lyon's women's team, he asserts, are not only the most successful French football club of all time but also 'one of the most dominant teams in the history of world sport'.
The book also falls into disappointing predictability, however, when discussing some of the horrific scandals that have consumed certain players in the modern game. Williams mostly glosses over the nightmarish activities undertaken by the likes of Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa and Frank Ribery, making his clear passion for the progress of the women's game feel slightly hollow.
Despite those shortcomings, 'Va Va Voom' is an exhaustive and scintillating read. He manages to bring new light to well-warn paths, unveil incredible stories and histories and keep tabs on how French football has just as much history to offer as any other major sporting institution. Will it change ardent football fans' minds about French football? Perhaps not. But it is almost exactly the kind of nuanced history the game deserved.
May 29, 2024
I just recently finished Tom Williams’ new book Va-Va-Voom - The Modern History of French Football, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
I used to be Tom’s editor at Bleacher Report, so I was pretty confident it would be good, but it exceeded my expectations.
With the exception of the national team and some of the big-name superstars, French football has always been a bit of a knowledge gap for me, so there was lots to learn here.
One of Tom’s main hypotheses in the book is that French football has never really developed a distinct style, which makes it a bit of an outlier when it comes to big football nations. But this is also why the book is so much fun to read.
There are great stories about legends like Platini, Zidane, Waddle at Marseille, and Hoddle at Monaco. However, by far my favourite chapters were the ones that focused on the various club sides that have dominated French football since the 1970s in their own unique and idiosyncratic ways.
One-club cities like Napoli, Bilbao, and Newcastle always tend to have a unique football pulse and if there is anything that sets French football apart from most countries, it is that it is full of such towns, as opposed to the inter-city rivalries that tend to dominate most countries.
In this book, we have stories about the glory years of clubs like St Etienne, Bordeaux, Marseille, Auxerre, and Lyon, which all used different ingredients to find success. There are enough names and faint memories involved with these sides to click the nostalgia button, but you also get so much fresh information to give you a sense of what these clubs are all about. If you are anything like me, one thing you will want to do with all this newfound knowledge after reading this book is start a Ligue 1 Football Manager save!
My favourite chapter in the book was the one about Nantes, a real “school of football” team that launched the careers of the likes of Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Claude Makelele, and Christian Karembeu. I loved reading about how long-term development gave birth to a team that went 32 games unbeaten to win the title in 1995 (a record still not broken by PSG), or how 22 of the 27-man squad that won the 2001 title came through the academy. Also, check out Patrice Loko’s goal vs. PSG in 1994 - Mon Dieu!
So yes, there are lots of great standalone chapters about these great teams, along with tales of the French superstars who dominated in the Premier League, Serie A, the Bundesliga and for the national team.
Sometimes you can know too much already when reading a sports book, but this was the perfect mix of new knowledge and nostalgia.
Everything Tom writes is always impeccably written and researched, and you can tell extra effort was put into this passion project. Go grab a copy.
I used to be Tom’s editor at Bleacher Report, so I was pretty confident it would be good, but it exceeded my expectations.
With the exception of the national team and some of the big-name superstars, French football has always been a bit of a knowledge gap for me, so there was lots to learn here.
One of Tom’s main hypotheses in the book is that French football has never really developed a distinct style, which makes it a bit of an outlier when it comes to big football nations. But this is also why the book is so much fun to read.
There are great stories about legends like Platini, Zidane, Waddle at Marseille, and Hoddle at Monaco. However, by far my favourite chapters were the ones that focused on the various club sides that have dominated French football since the 1970s in their own unique and idiosyncratic ways.
One-club cities like Napoli, Bilbao, and Newcastle always tend to have a unique football pulse and if there is anything that sets French football apart from most countries, it is that it is full of such towns, as opposed to the inter-city rivalries that tend to dominate most countries.
In this book, we have stories about the glory years of clubs like St Etienne, Bordeaux, Marseille, Auxerre, and Lyon, which all used different ingredients to find success. There are enough names and faint memories involved with these sides to click the nostalgia button, but you also get so much fresh information to give you a sense of what these clubs are all about. If you are anything like me, one thing you will want to do with all this newfound knowledge after reading this book is start a Ligue 1 Football Manager save!
My favourite chapter in the book was the one about Nantes, a real “school of football” team that launched the careers of the likes of Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps, Claude Makelele, and Christian Karembeu. I loved reading about how long-term development gave birth to a team that went 32 games unbeaten to win the title in 1995 (a record still not broken by PSG), or how 22 of the 27-man squad that won the 2001 title came through the academy. Also, check out Patrice Loko’s goal vs. PSG in 1994 - Mon Dieu!
So yes, there are lots of great standalone chapters about these great teams, along with tales of the French superstars who dominated in the Premier League, Serie A, the Bundesliga and for the national team.
Sometimes you can know too much already when reading a sports book, but this was the perfect mix of new knowledge and nostalgia.
Everything Tom writes is always impeccably written and researched, and you can tell extra effort was put into this passion project. Go grab a copy.
July 26, 2024
El fútbol no siempre fue mi pasión, pero ahora lo es. Mi historia con este deporte comenzó con el Arsenal hace quince años, y desde entonces, el fútbol inglés ha sido mi principal interés. A pesar de la influencia de ciertos entrenadores y jugadores franceses en mi equipo favorito, siempre he visto el fútbol francés con cierto desdén. Sin embargo, tras escuchar un podcast sobre la fascinante historia de este deporte en Francia, me sentí atraído y decidí buscar el libro "Va-Va-Voom".
Este libro ofrece un recorrido ameno y accesible por los hitos, eventos y figuras clave del fútbol francés, desde jugadores y entrenadores hasta presidentes y clubes. Una pregunta que siempre me ha intrigado es cómo Francia ha producido algunos de los talentos más emocionantes e impactantes de las últimas décadas, mientras que su liga y fútbol en general no han despertado el mismo nivel de pasión que el fútbol inglés, alemán, italiano o español. En "Va-Va-Voom", Williams se propone encontrar una respuesta a esta pregunta, y tras leer el libro, puedo afirmar que vale la pena descubrirla.
Este libro ofrece un recorrido ameno y accesible por los hitos, eventos y figuras clave del fútbol francés, desde jugadores y entrenadores hasta presidentes y clubes. Una pregunta que siempre me ha intrigado es cómo Francia ha producido algunos de los talentos más emocionantes e impactantes de las últimas décadas, mientras que su liga y fútbol en general no han despertado el mismo nivel de pasión que el fútbol inglés, alemán, italiano o español. En "Va-Va-Voom", Williams se propone encontrar una respuesta a esta pregunta, y tras leer el libro, puedo afirmar que vale la pena descubrirla.
December 28, 2025
Fantastisk fodboldbog! Den moderne franske fodboldhistorie rulles ud. Der er fortællinger om de franske hold med særlige spillestile som Nantes, de karismatiske klubejere i Marseille og Bordeaux, portrætter af de store spillere som Zidane, Platini, Giresse og Papin og et godt kapitel om Auxerre og Guy Roux. Og oveni i alt dette er der en tråd, som handler om, hvordan den franske fodbold inspireres udefra. I Italien lærer man at spille for at vinde, i England bliver de modstandsdygtige, i Tyskland får man spilletid og mulighed for at tage et lille skridt før det store skifte, og i Spanien vil kun de bedste franske spillere stråle, for her går fodbolden op i en højere enhed. Og så er der en kritik af, at man på landsholdet samler spillere fra alle disse ligaer, men man formår ikke at skabe et helt sublimt spillende landshold - under Deschamps har man i stedet lavet et vinderhold, der kun går på banen med dette ene formål. Og det kritiseres, fordi fransk fodbold - som man kan læse i bogen - gerne vil være kendt for lidt mere end bare dette.
May 10, 2025
A really good read/listen. Written very nicely and with strong & comprehensive insight into a football nation which so often gets ignored or diminished (e.g., via Ligue 1) in spite of their great international success. I hadn't known, before picking up this book, about the rich history of French football. I think as well, the book did very well to encapsulate the French footballing identity (or lack thereof).
There were moments wherein I wished for a stronger structure carrying throughout all of this book's chapters a'la by The Mixer by Michael Cox. However, I've realized that the choice that Tom Williams makes to shift between teams and coaches and players mirrors what French football is, in that there is no established philosophy or set of principles. Rather, the identity is adaptability & independence. In this sense, I think Va-Va-Voom is a really good reflection of this section of history.
There were moments wherein I wished for a stronger structure carrying throughout all of this book's chapters a'la by The Mixer by Michael Cox. However, I've realized that the choice that Tom Williams makes to shift between teams and coaches and players mirrors what French football is, in that there is no established philosophy or set of principles. Rather, the identity is adaptability & independence. In this sense, I think Va-Va-Voom is a really good reflection of this section of history.
Read
July 16, 2024I thought this was a very insightful book and an enjoyable read!
It's set out in a series of vignettes which, together, create an image of French Football's modern past. It follows the rise and fall of several clubs while also looking at the development of the national team. There were some great stories in here! The interviews which invariably came up were also nice interjections. Well written and left me with lots to think about. A conclusion, as such, is that France has succeeded in creating great individual talent but without playing football 'a la francaise' or creating a national style. I think this is the same case in England.
I read this during the last week of the 2024 euros. That provided a nice backdrop as France and England both lost to Spain, in the semis and final respectively.
It's set out in a series of vignettes which, together, create an image of French Football's modern past. It follows the rise and fall of several clubs while also looking at the development of the national team. There were some great stories in here! The interviews which invariably came up were also nice interjections. Well written and left me with lots to think about. A conclusion, as such, is that France has succeeded in creating great individual talent but without playing football 'a la francaise' or creating a national style. I think this is the same case in England.
I read this during the last week of the 2024 euros. That provided a nice backdrop as France and England both lost to Spain, in the semis and final respectively.
July 29, 2024
Excellent book. I couldn't put it down and found it very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the sections on Bordeaux and Auxerre. Through my youth I was a huge fan of Serie A and the French influence of Zidane, Thuram etc so it was good to see this included in the book.
The book was a mixture of interviews, profiles of some of the key people and commentary of key games in the recent history of French football.
I was aware of some of the players discussed in this book but now I have a new appreciation.
Additionally it's given me some kudos with my in- laws. My wife is from near Auxerre and this gave me an insight into her family's local team and the legend that is Guy Roux, providing me with conversations about the recent history of their club.
The book was a mixture of interviews, profiles of some of the key people and commentary of key games in the recent history of French football.
I was aware of some of the players discussed in this book but now I have a new appreciation.
Additionally it's given me some kudos with my in- laws. My wife is from near Auxerre and this gave me an insight into her family's local team and the legend that is Guy Roux, providing me with conversations about the recent history of their club.
December 31, 2024
Great read (first audiobook I’ve ever listened to) for the obsessed soccer/football fan. Admittedly I’ve been a mega-fan only since 2013 and have mainly focused on EPL, and dabbled into the other European leagues (mainly Serie A, and Bundesliga). I have truly only known the Qatari backed PSG and French national team The most interesting parts of this book for me were: FC Nantes, Papin at Marseille, Platini’s time at Juventus, and the French connection while Wenger and Henry were there. Would highly recommend and enjoyed William’s storytelling and reporting overall.
March 7, 2025
I absolutely LOVED it. For whatever reason, despite their very successful national team in recent years, my knowledge of French football was limited. Great to explore that through iconic figures like Platini, Papin, Cantona, Zidane, Henry, Benzema and Mbappe. But the stories of clubs like St Étienne, Marseille, Lyon and especially Auxerre and perhaps the most fascinating figure of all, Guy Roux, were so enjoyable to read and enter into.
Great book!
Great book!
May 21, 2024
Brilliant, comprehensive overview of and insight into the modern history of French football. Thoroughly researched with many interviews, the book tells the big stories and many of the smaller ones. An extremely readable and immediate book not just about French football but of the country as a whole over the last 50 years.
June 23, 2024
Very enjoyable book. The author was very good at spinning the web of French football's history and I liked that the book was littered with interviews from key figures in the history of the French game. All in all, put me in even more of a euros fever!
February 13, 2025
The best football book on French football. Great range of focuses throughout.
November 19, 2025
In 1976, Saint-Étienne played Bayern Munich in the European Cup final. They hit the crossbar twice and lost the game 1-0. However, the goalposts were square rather than cylindrical. A 2006 ballistics study found that if the crossbar had been cylindrical, there would have been two Saint-Étienne goals!
These are the fine margins in football.
The teams in Va-Va-Voom are so interesting! I had no idea about that infamous 1993 Champions League Marseille team and the allegations of match-fixing: (allegedly) the players that had been paid off rolled their socks down to indicate this to the Marseille team, and opposition players complained about the water being tampered with. I also loved reading about Lyon's seven consecutive league titles and the French influence on Wenger's Arsenal team.
Where will French Football go in the future? The league has downsized to eighteen teams. Perhaps this will make the league more competitive. It was also interesting to read about the problem of ideology in French Football. Williams argues that this is not defined but rather players are taught a methodology. Is this a problem? Especially with lots of teams playing in a similar way.
These are the fine margins in football.
The teams in Va-Va-Voom are so interesting! I had no idea about that infamous 1993 Champions League Marseille team and the allegations of match-fixing: (allegedly) the players that had been paid off rolled their socks down to indicate this to the Marseille team, and opposition players complained about the water being tampered with. I also loved reading about Lyon's seven consecutive league titles and the French influence on Wenger's Arsenal team.
Where will French Football go in the future? The league has downsized to eighteen teams. Perhaps this will make the league more competitive. It was also interesting to read about the problem of ideology in French Football. Williams argues that this is not defined but rather players are taught a methodology. Is this a problem? Especially with lots of teams playing in a similar way.
October 19, 2024
Excellent read, not only full of the fascinating recent history of French football but beautifully written too
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