Frank Leboeuf: I had to win the World Cup to hear my father say he was proud of me

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Slaven Bilic fooled the referee and got Laurent Blanc sent off in World Cup semi-final… but he changed my life!

I’m in a really strange situation with Slaven Bilic, because of what happened in that semi-final. After the game, I was in such a difficult position, because we’d just won. I’d come on and I was happy because I was going to be playing in the World Cup final – but that was only the case because of a trick from Slaven Bilic, who fooled the referee and got Laurent Blanc sent off. Laurent fell for it and shouldn’t have got himself into that position, so it’s also his fault – but it’s unfair.

Bilic shouldn’t have done that. I told him, maybe three or four years ago. It’s funny because I spoke with him on a French radio station and told him that people were thinking I must have owed Slaven money for doing what he did to Blanc in the semis, because it meant I’d play in the final. I wanted him to reassure people that wasn’t true! We can laugh about it now because it’s all in the past.

🗣️ "Everyone was saying, 'Against Ronaldo, how are we going to win without Laurent Blanc?' Then I made the first tackle on Ronaldo, the crowd roared and I knew it was our day."

🎊 Happy birthday to @FrenchTeam #WorldCup winner, Frank Leboeufpic.twitter.com/Z3X3pt5bKG

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) January 22, 2021

When we won Euro 2000 and David Trezeguet scored the Golden Goal in the final, everybody went over to Trezeguet. I went straight over to the bench and to Laurent Blanc. I just told him I was so happy that he had the chance to play in that final, because he deserved it. He was OK, he was happy. He told me that he felt it was his fault, because he reacted to Bilic’s trick. And while the European Championship is different to the World Cup, I was just so happy Blanc got to experience it.

It’s a tricky situation with Bilic and while I’ll never support what he did to Blanc, he changed my life. Because of him I got to play in a World Cup final.

The whole world was talking about how we’d survive without Laurent Blanc… when you’re the guy replacing him, you don’t feel great

I played in the last group game against Denmark and it was agreed with my coach that I wouldn’t play again in that tournament, unless something happened to one of our defenders. It was going to be Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly. They were the manager’s first options and would have been in the final if they were both available, I have no doubt about that. But, of course, Blanc was sent off in the semi-final which meant I came on in that game to cover for him, and subsequently I’d go on to play in the final.

The day after our semi-final with Croatia, all of the focus around the world – particularly in France – was about ‘how can they win the World Cup without Laurent Blanc?’. In that moment, when you’re the guy who is stepping in to replace him, you really feel like a piece of s***.

France's 1998 World Cup winning side is iconic 🤩

Name them all 👇 pic.twitter.com/oxDIymy1US

— GOAL (@goal) April 25, 2019

Aime Jacquet never talked to me in the days between the semi-final and the final. We spoke about it 20 years later, because I complained about that decision from him at the time. I’d have loved for him to have just said to me ‘Frank, I’m not worried, I know you’re going to be OK’. But he didn’t and it’s something which always bugged me. All those years later, he told me I was right to be angry, but at the time he didn’t feel like he had to say anything to me, because he knew I’d be OK.

He told me: “You were 30-years-old, you were more than strong enough and I knew you were a confident person.”

That was true; he was right. But a little bit of support would have helped me! But whatever, it is what it is!

I had to win the World Cup for my father to say he was proud of me for the first time

There are so many things that come to my mind when I think of that night – not least my father, who was in the stands. He’s no longer with us, he passed away almost 20 years ago. Moments like that night are just a complete mix of emotions. When I heard the referee blow the final whistle, I just fell to my knees. All I could think was ‘wow, I’m champion of the world’.

The song from Queen – We are the Champions – really meant something that night. You hear it many times whenever you win trophies for your club, but it’s never really true unless you’ve just won a World Cup final – which is what we did. No time for losers.

And then you’re thinking ‘hold on, my idols are [Michel] Platini and [Johan] Cruyff and they didn’t win this trophy, and me – Frank Leboeuf – I did. That’s not fair… it’s not fair.’

Straight after the game I went to see my friends and family who were all upstairs and I see my son on his knees. He said: “Daddy, we won the World Cup!” He was six-years-old, and I don’t think he really knew what it meant at the time, but that’s what I think of.

 

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I listened to Thierry Henry recently talking about his father, and he was saying how tough he was on him as a boy, and how maybe it’s because of that, that he became who he is today. And that’s the same for me. My father was my coach from between the ages of four to 15 in a small village in the south of France. I remember being 11 years old, scoring four goals, winning a game 8-2, and my father yelled at me for missing two goals. I didn’t want to go back home. Instead I went to a friend’s place. I was crying in front of my team-mates, because I felt it was so unfair.

It’s only the night of July 12th, 1998, that my father said he was proud of me. I was 30-years-old and had to win the World Cup to hear that. But that’s something I’ve always accepted, and the way I saw it was just that he was so hard on me because he wanted me to prove I deserved his credit. You had to become a world champion to get my father’s credit – it’s crazy! But I bet you can talk to most of the top players and ask them how their parents were, and I am sure you would hear the same story again and again. It’s hard, because you have to live your life with that – and when I talk to my kids, they don’t get it, because I’m not like my father.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a perfectionist. I want them to be successful in everything they do and I’ll always say you have to suffer to get what you want. I’m not going to say you’re the most beautiful or the most successful person, first of all because it’s not true, but secondly because you need to earn it. That’s how things were with my father.

I miss him greatly, and it makes me sad that he didn’t get to see me become an actor and be successful on stage in plays. I’d have loved for him to have seen me today. He was a stubborn man who got cancer at 60-years-old and died from it there because he didn’t want to stay in the hospital. But that was who he was,and that was how he wanted to do things.

 

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But when I saw him after that final, I just hugged him and said “Dad, I did it! I did it for all of you, because I knew you were there for me.” He was there for me, in his own way, he was there for me.

I think I managed to get maybe an hour of sleep the night after that final, and I can remember one particular moment, I was outside looking up at the stars in the sky and I talked to them.

“Tonight, we’re not too far from you. We achieved something absolutely fantastic.”

It was so hard to come back to earth. How do you come down from a feeling like that, where you’re on top of the world?

Desailly and I were still on a high from World Cup win, but were at fault for two goals in first 16 minutes v Coventry in season opener!

I don’t think any of us – at the time – had a clue what we’d done and how special it was. We went to celebrate, but it must have taken us four hours to get from the stadium to where we wanted to go because of the fans in the streets and down the motorway – it was crazy.

The day after, we went to the French Federation, and to the media to talk to the press before heading to the Champs-Elysees. And it was only there that we realised something crazy was happening. One and a half million people were there. It took us two hours to do not even half of the journey. But it was so nice and it was just fantastic to see everybody unite in complete happiness with no fears.

 

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And then, for 15 days, the rest of my holiday was all about celebrating and soaking up the atmosphere. I was away with my family and they had to close the beach because people were swarming it to see me.

Then I came back to England with Marcel Desailly to start the new season with Chelsea. We didn’t want to run. We couldn’t do anything, we were still celebrating! It took us so long to come back down to reality.

I can tell you exactly what happened in my first game back from the World Cup win. Talk about a welcome home. We played against Coventry City and Dion Dublin absolutely ran riot. The first goal was Marcel’s fault, the second was my fault, and this was all inside 16 minutes on the opening day of the season! We were still on holiday! This was a proper slap in the face for me and Marcel.