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Allez les bleues: How French women’s football captivated the internet

A French advertisement showing football stars Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud making dazzling plays for the national team has gone viral - except it's all an illusion to promote the Women's World Cup.

Allez les bleues: How French women's football captivated the internet
France's striker Delphine Cascarino in action during the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 semi-final football match (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

Halfway into the ad, broadcast by telecoms giant Orange, the clip shows that the highlights were actually images of the men superimposed on players from the French women’s side.

The goal: to show that footballers such as Sakina Karchaoui, Eugenie Le Sommer or Wendie Renard are just as brilliant as their male peers.

The deepfake has won praise at home and abroad, with England legend Gary Lineker tweeting ‘c’est bon!‘.

READ MORE: ‘Allez putain!’: French phrases you need for the 2023 World Cup

A Time magazine headline says the ad “Shows How Women’s Soccer Can Be Just as Exciting as Men’s”.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald said the “major plot twist” will “convert even the most cynical who believe women’s football is too slow and boring”.

The nearly two-minute video produced by the ad agency Marcel has generated 100 million views on social media platforms.

“It is said that the most beautiful sport is male sport. … What if we changed our perspective?” Orange’s chief executive, Christel Heydemann, said at the ad’s release late last month.

“Beyond a technical feat, this video forces us to confront our prejudices,” she wrote on LinkedIn.

“I am very proud that Orange is supporting the players and, more broadly, all women, by being a partner of this major event,” said Heydemann, the first woman to head the French telecoms group.

France defender Elisa De Almeida, whose team’s World Cup campaign starts in Sydney on Sunday against Jamaica, said the players were “very happy to see this type of video on social media”.

“We can thank them (Orange) because these are the kinds of things that also make women’s football progress,” she said at a press conference.

The World Cup, which started on Thursday, is being held in Australia and New Zealand until August 20th.

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SPORT

France football star Thuram takes stand against far right ahead of elections

France forward Marcus Thuram on Saturday called on voters in the country to "fight" to stop the far right coming to power in upcoming snap elections.

France football star Thuram takes stand against far right ahead of elections

Thuram is the first member of the France squad at Euro 2024 to take a clear position against the far-right National Rally (RN) ahead of legislative elections for the French National Assembly.

“I think the situation is sad and very serious,” the 26-year-old forward with Italian champions Inter Milan told reporters in Paderborn, where the 2022 World Cup runners-up are based during the Euros in Germany.

President Emmanuel Macron has called elections with the first round set for June 30 and the second round on July 7.

He announced the snap poll last Sunday in response to the results of the EU elections, in which far-right parties — including the top-scoring RN — managed to take almost 40 percent of the vote in France.

The French squad, the majority of whom come from an immigrant background, had been playing a friendly match against Canada at the same time as Macron made his announcement.

“I heard about it after the match against Canada. We were all a bit shocked in the dressing room.

“We need to tell everyone to get out and vote, to fight every day to stop the RN winning,” added Thuram, who is preparing with his teammates for their first European Championship game against Austria on Monday.

Other France players, notably Ousmane Dembele and Olivier Giroud, had already publicly called on their compatriots to go out and vote in the elections, but had not taken as clear a stand as Thuram.

“I hope that everyone shares my opinion. It is not enough to say that you need to go out and vote. We need to explain how we have got to where we are,” he said.

“I don’t think it should be very difficult to talk about. It is the way I have been educated.

“I know a lot of people follow me on social media and I have an obligation to get certain messages across,” added Thuram, whose father Lilian won the World Cup with France in 1998 and is well-known for his campaigning against racism.

“Having grown up with my father I feel a responsibility to get this message across.”

Of his teammates in the France squad, Thuram added: “I have no doubt at all that everyone in the France squad thinks the same way as me.

“I am not here to force anyone to say anything even if it is what they think.

“Thanks to my father I have enough of an understanding of this situation to be able to talk about it.”

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