In Northern France, about an hour outside Paris, lies the central nervous system of
the French football machine. Buried in the plush green woods of the Rambouillet Forest,
the Institut national du football de Clairefontaine, or simply INF Clairefontaine, is perhaps the
most celebrated national football academy in the world.
Clairefontaine is responsible for refining and perfecting the technical and tactical
acumen of players like Thierry Henry, Louis Saha, Medhi Benatia, Nicolas Anelka, William
Gallas, Hatem Ben Arfa, Abou Diaby, Olivier Giroud, Blaise Matuidi, and the recent crown
jewel of the program, PSG’s Kylian Mbappe.
There were 50 players born in France representing various nations at the 2018 World Cup, an
astounding figure that demonstrates the scope of France’s ability to produce football
players. But how did the French perfect the concept of player development? How has this
country continuously produced the most exciting, powerful, technical, and tactically smart
players on the planet?
Quite simply, by developing the best individuals for the benefit of the team.
The brainchild of former French Football President Fernand Sastre and head coach Stefan Kovacs,
Clairefontaine has housed the French National Team since 1988, and was the base camp for
the 1998 World Cup winning side.
Kovacs, a Romanian born ethnic Hungarian, and the only foreigner to ever coach the French
national side, was inspired by the communist training centres of his homeland, rigid camps
where individual skill was obsessively honed for the good of the
collective.
At its most basic level, Clairefontaine is a regional academy for boys from the Paris
suburbs,an area that has consistently produced incredibly talented footballers. Boys aged
13-15 from the Ile-de-France region apply for the program, with 23 being selected each
season.
The players stay at Clairefontaine throughout the week and return to their local sides to
play matches on the weekend.
The philosophy at Clairefontaine begins with individual technical perfection; being able
to turn quickly, improving your weaker foot, and tactical decision-making. The students
are put through the paces in highly-specific and regimented drills before ever touching
a full-sized pitch.
But French Football is less concerned with a larger playing philosophy (unlike, say Barcelona’s
La Masia) and more focused on individual player development. While all the youth teams play
in a 4-3-3, the emphasis is on creating the best individual players in relation to the
team. Jean-Claude Lefargue the director of the program, told
The Telegraph in 2018 that French coaches are starting to embrace the philosophy of
Clairefontaine:
“All the coaches of the professional clubs come through Clairefontaine. Over the years
we have been able to convince them of the philosophy, about what they have to find in
a player. And so we have started to have this common idea across France. It takes time to
convince others, to train the coaches, but little by little we have all started to do
the same thing.”
When Lefargue refers to a “philosophy” he is talking about player development, not
tactics.
Lefargue and Clairefontaine produce incredibly astute players that are tactically malleable
and technically proficient, able to play whatever role their are assigned. Kylian Mbappe’s
presence on the right wing for France in 2018 and PSG at times is an example of this
philosophy in action. There is a sort of ironic simplicity in this
philosophy, to produce the best individuals for the good of the collective, and Lefargue
explained the idea to The Telegraph:
“I use the example of an actor. An actor has to play the best role possible, but only
according to the role he has. If it is a sad role, he has to be sad. In a match, it is
the same thing. If you have a really good actor, you cannot just give him a small role.
You have to make more of him.”
The French National side has played very different styles over the course of the last 30 years,
perhaps best evidenced by their international double at World Cup 1998 and Euro 2000.
In 1998, the French were cautious and solid, with the much-maligned striker Stephane Guivarc'h
not getting on the scoresheet all tournament (much like Olivier Giroud 20 years later).
At the World Cup, the French relied on the individual brilliance of Zinedine Zidane and
their defensive backline of Lillian Thuram, Marcel Desailly, Frank LeBouef and Bixente
Lizarazu.
Two years later, France had Nikolas Anelka and Thierry Henry, two Clairefontaine graduates
and two of the finest strikers of the era, leading the line, and romped to the title
based off their superior speed, power, and technique.
In the span of two years, France’s footballing actors were able to put forth two stylistically
polar productions, but both ended in silverware.
When compared to the Dutch or Italians, there is no real “French football philosophy,”
besides creating the most technically precise, quick, strong, and tactically astute players.
Nevertheless, a tension between playing philosophies characterized much of modern French
football. As Michael Cox writes in his book Zonal Marking,
“Post-war French Football was effectively a battle between two contrasting ideologies,
one that favoured physicality and hard work, and the other that placed emphasis on technique
and style.”
One must look no further than the 2018 World Cup-winning double pivot of N’Golo Kante
and Paul Pogba to see these two supposedly contrasting ideologies working in perfect
harmony.
The Clairefontaine model has now been copied throughout the world, even La Masia can learn
from Lefargue’s program as he proudly stated, “La Masia came here a long time ago. We
have the same philosophy. Not necessarily the pass for a pass, but working for the collective.”
England’s St George’s Park has been largely based off the Clairefontaine development model.
With a talented new generation coming through, England is starting to reap the benefits of
these ideas.
The French football machine has shown its ability to produce a neverending procession
of Golden Generations since Clairefontaine’s inception. They are perhaps the greatest modern
footballing country, armed with a simple philosophy based on producing the best possible players.
If football is a game of actors, the world is truly a stage for French football.