Biography

I don't know where all my medals are. They are in boxes somewhere, I think. I live for the present and the future and not the past.

It is only in the second half of my career that I have been a major player. The first half of my career was very quiet and normal.

He [Thierry Henry] came into the group [France squad], he looked around a lot, he talked to people and he learned. He has a very big intelligence, in football and also as a man. That is maybe his secret. You knew pretty early he and [David] Trezeguet were major footballers.

You win the World Cup, you win the Euro, so people are more interested in football than before. Football is the most played sport in France. But I still think French football has a problem. French people don't have the football culture. The Spanish people have the football culture. The Portuguese people have the football culture and you, the English, your stadiums are full, your fans all wear the clubs' shirts, your clubs have economic power - you really have the football culture. The French... no. France has traditions, its arts, its gastronomy, but there is not such a tradition for sport. As a French player you know what you do is important to your country but you know that in other countries it would be of a higher importance, and that feels a little strange. If Brazil are knocked out of a tournament it's a drama, the end of the world. In France it's [he shrugs], 'Oh, we've been knocked out.' Our big problem is that. In France you have the good training, the good performance... but you don't have the culture. In 1998, football was big. It was, 'Hey, football's fantastic, we're winning, the economics are great, the restaurants are full.' But it didn't last.

Everyone [in the France squad] has their own personality, but look at someone like [Lilian] Thuram. He's someone with a lot of character, who has an air of calm and serenity. He's not one of those leaders who talks a lot. You don't have to talk a lot to be a good leader. I myself don't talk so much. It's about how you are as a person and the way you play. Thuram is someone who brings a real feeling of security to that group of players. Fabien [Barthez] is the same.