14 July 2026

Ahead of today's World Cup semi-final between France and Spain, remarks by former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy have ignited fierce debate in the European press and beyond. He claimed France boasts a top-level squad yet lacks any French players. Aurore Berge, France's Minister for the Fight Against Discriminations, denounced the comments as racist.

Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris, observes in El Pais that French identity transcends ethnicity, ancestry or skin tone. It forms a political pledge each person accepts according to their contributions rather than inheritance. One may join a nation via blood received or blood shed, whether by birth or choice, but never on account of skin colour. This quality lifts nations above tribes, a fact nationalists everywhere resent. On Tuesday evening two great nations meet in Dallas, nations that did not require purity to attain greatness.

Webcafe highlights how the French national team demonstrates successful integration earned through effort and commitment. Sport remains one of the rare domains where individuals from disadvantaged migrant areas can integrate fully. It allows people to demonstrate value via hard work and results instead of family background or privilege.

The Conversation points out that France struggles with its self-image. The country is a hybrid society shaped by colonial history yet sometimes uneasy with portrayals that stray from a traditionally white vision of France. The issue lies less with the team and more with how France views itself, occasionally stuck in a pre-colonial notion of a white France while overlooking its multicultural reality.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recalls that French team triumphs and setbacks have long been tied to questions of player origins, from the 1998 celebrations chanting Black, blanc, beur to the 2010 strike labelled with stereotypes. Today little is said of past tensions since winners are popular, yet the ugliness returns from outside as an echo that shames the country rather than the squad.

Liberation notes that teams across sports mirror France's diversity, whether through skin colour in football, southern accents in rugby or aristocratic names in equestrian events. All represent the Bleus equally.