SPECIAL REPORT | The French national team is supporting Olivier Giroud internally
Booed and whistled before, during and after France’s 3-2 victory over Cameroon at the beginning of the week, Olivier Giroud has received considerable internal support from his teammates and coaching staff.
André Pierre Gignac was the first to come to Giroud’s side, speaking immediately after the match:
“If there were boos, then it is ridiculous. He scored, he played his match, that is what is most important. He continues on his run, I am happy for him.”
Internally, Les Bleus’s players and coaching staff are shocked by the treatment that a certain minority of so-called “supporters” have given Giroud at the beginning of this pre-tournament preparation, according to RMC.
The coaching staff are counting on Giroud to lead the line for France at EURO 2016, with Griezmann and Payet alongside him, in Deschamps’s favoured 4-3-3 formation.
These “morons,” as one member of the French national team described them, are even hoping that Giroud is injured so that he cannot play at EURO 2016. An individual on Monday was seen with a banner that read: “Get injured please Giroud.”
A team-mate of Giroud’s reacted to the banner:
“Frankly he must be really stupid. The fans should be behind every player before Euro. You can boo a player after a match, not before the competition. He will be our main goalscorer, we need Olive to be full of confidence.”
Didier Deschamps encouraged the press to write about the incidents in a press conference yesterday:
“Talk about it, write about it, it would be good if you did that. It is certainly a minority (that booed Giroud). It is unfair, certainly. Olivier is here. To prove the contrary, he scores goals with us, which is what we ask him to do. This team is counting on him and his qualities.”
A member of the coaching team explained how Giroud felt:
“Olivier is determined, but in his heart it must hurt. We are trying to support him because he has always had a good mentality with the national team.”
Deschamps has already had a one-on-one with Giroud and is expected to have another in the coming days.
Another member of staff tackled the claims that Giroud was being booed as a way for these individuals to bemoan the absence of Karim Benzema:
“Karim is not here because that was the decision that Didier and Noël Le Graët, the President of the FFF took. Olivier has always behaved in an exemplary fashion and never tried to create a problem with Benzema, it is unacceptable what is happening to him.”
His team-mates continue to support him:
“Olivier has scored 5 goals in his last 4 matches. We need him. And he is also an exemplary teammate. He is the type of player that you want to play with at your club. In the dressing room, he has always treated Karim in the best possible way.”