With the World Cup happening, I thought it’d be a nice excuse to go back to FIFA France 98 and dig up some videos I could find to practice a little French. Now I”m not a football / soccer fan but I gotta admit that the hype surrounding this world cup made me interested in it. It was also my first World Cup that I can really remember and because of it I have many fond memories as I’ve mentioned before.
Originally I wanted to talk more about Footix the mascot since he’s all kinds of awesome but he turned out to have so much content to discuss it’ll have to wait for an article in 2 weeks. Here we have a recent commercial of a special on the Coupe Du Monde 98 from France24 that they’re advertising. It’s only a small commercial but it gives you enough info about the event and works as a good warm up to practice. Not only did France get to host the world cup in 1998 but they also won it, so it was sure to have been a special year for most of France.
The next video is an awesome live performance of the unofficial song for France 98 and I have to say it should’ve been used instead of the Ricky Martin song but oh well, it must not’ve been as marketable for the rest of the world and FIFA contracts were more important but here it is along with its lyrics / paroles with an English translation so you can practice as well. The best part of the song is that it serves as a premonition since France did win in the end
World Cup 1998 – Inno ufficiale France 98 (La cours des grandes – Youssou N’Dour & Axel Red)
World Cup 1998 – Inno ufficiale France 98 (La cours des grandes – Youssou N’Dour & Axel Red)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXtJ7NKGxXg
La Cour Des Grands Youssou N’Dour & Axelle Red Paroles / Lyrics
Quatre années ont passé
Mais dans les regards
Je peux voir
Cette soif de victoire
Le stade est bondé
Supporters surexcités
Tous ces pays représentés
C’est magique et pour nous
C’est beau de voir tout ce monde qui joue allez allez…
A toi de faire rêver
A ton tour de jouer
A ton tour de marquerA ton tour de gagner
L’émotion et la passion
Au service du ballon rond
C’est la cour des grands
C’est un rêve pour moi
C’est beau de voir un monde qui joue allez allez…
En un tour de main
Du monde de demain
Il t’appartient
De faire un monde bien
C’est beau de voir un monde qui joue allez allez…English
Four years have passed
But in the looks
I can see
This thirst for victory
The stadium is crowded
Excited fans
All these countries represented
It’s magic and for us
It’s nice to see all the people playing will go …
It’s up to you to dream
It’s your turn to play
It’s your turn to scoreIt’s your turn to win
Emotion and passion
In the service of the round ball
This is the big leagues
It’s a dream for me
It’s nice to see a world that plays go go …
In a jiffy
From the world of tomorrow
It belongs to you
To make a good world
It’s nice to see a world that plays go go …
And Finally we have one more video which is a tv interview with various people as well as a vignette of the World Cup. This one is a bit more difficult to understand because of the quality of the video as well as the excitement of the people which makes them speak faster and with different intonation as they recap the final match against Brazil.
Zapping – Coupe du monde France 98 Zapping de Canal+
Stade de France, le 12 juillet 1998, finale de la coupe du monde foot France-Bresil
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