French Stereotypes

It is good to know that there are two men out there who are reaffirming the romantic stereotype normally associated with Frenchmen.

El Presidente:

In the last few months, there have been more articles written about French president Nicolas Sarkozy's wife than about his policies. A month ago, Doug Saunders of The Globe and Mail reviewed a year in Sarkozy's life with respect to 5 women. Ofcourse, it is the 5th women in that list, his wife Carla, that has been getting all the attention. When Sarkozy went to England at the end of March, the papers gushed all over Carla. Canadian papers followed the example as well. And on Sunday, the Carla bug touched down in the NY Times.

National team manager:

Then there is the strange case of Raymond Domenech. Moments after his French team got knocked out of Euro 2008, he apparently proposed to his girlfriend Estelle Denis in a television interview. A day later he tried to play the incident down but honestly, that was just bad timing.

But what is interesting is this rumour regarding Ludovic Giuly and Estelle. This is the first I have heard of it but is this a reason why Giuly was dropped from the national team? In reality, there are better players who can play instead of Giuly for France but could his sending a text message to Domenech's girlfriend have cost him a place in the French national team? Not sure. What I don't understand is why Domenech dropped Robert Pires? I have felt that Domenech has been a bit vengeful in his team selections and does not often give valid reasons. For example: why were Sagna & Clichy not at the Euros?

If the French team manager was more concerned about his girlfriend, then is it any wonder why he looked lost and unable to inspire his players? On the other hand, the French players showed no mental strength and were not at all interested in the games. Why did Thuram opt out of the final game against Italy? Were all the French players instead thinking of their women and how they would rather spend time with them on a beach somewhere rather than run around for 90 pointless minutes? We will never know.