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PARIS – Hundreds of thousands of ecstatic French fans celebrating the return of their World Cup winning football team on Monday (July 16), jumping and singing "We Are The Champions" as their bus paraded down the Champs Elysees before a special presidential
"The Blues", a dynamic, young team that won an open, fast-paced final 4-2 with Croatia in Moscow, appeared at the Elysee palace, where they burst into a spontaneous rendition of the "La Marseillaise President Emmanuel Macron and his wife
"Thank you for having made us proud," Macron told the players in the presidential palace's gardens. "1965, 0002"
French media hanged the day
More than 300,000 people filled the Champs Elysees, the area around the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde on Sunday night, singing the Marseillaise, setting off firecrackers and blaring horns until the sun rose.
"We had so much fun last night, the city was full of joy, so much celebration, "a woman dressed in red, white and blue who had made her way to Charles de Gaulle airport told BFM TV. "All we want is a wave from the players." Newspapers hailed a second World Cup for France, after their first victory on home soil in 1998.
"History Made" declared sports daily L'Equipe. Photos of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, dominated coverage.
The victory has helped foster a sense of national unity, with commentators playing (19659002) France has suffered many years of tension and self-examination since the beginning of the second half of the world. attacks by Islamist gunmen during 2015 dead, more than 140 dead, killed in the Bataclan Theater in Paris. In the world, the World Cup has helped lift the nation as it remains wary of the threat.
When France won its first World Cup 20 years ago, with Zinedine Zidane its talisman and playmaker, the team was referred to as " Black-White-Butcher "(Black-White-Arab), a positive reference to its various ethnic make-up.
But some were keen to put that sentence to one side, see in it a sense of separateness, even if it was meant positively.
"We're not in 1998," said Mounir Mahjoubi, the secretary of state for digital affairs, whose parents emigrated from Morocco.
"We're not still celebrating 'Black-White- Beur ', we're celebrating brotherhood, "he said of the current team.
METRO STATIONS
For Macron, who became president last year at the age of 39, leading his political movement to victory against The success is also likely to have positive repercussions after a slump in the polls
Paris metro system got into the celebratory mood, announcing the names of a number of stations were changed to honor the players and coach, Didier Deschamps
Our Lady of the Fields station was relabelled "Our Didier Deschamps", and Victor Hugo was switched to "Victor Hugo Lloris" after the captain and goalkeeper.
On Monday morning, the after-effects of Sunday night's frenetic revelry were still visible.
A number of smashed windows, an overturned car and graffiti scrawled Here and there, including the phrase "Liberty, Equality, Mbappe", reference to the national motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".
On Twitter, Brazilian legend Pele paid tribute to the exploits of Mbappe, France's 19-year -old superstar, saying that if the teenager kept his goal-scoring records, Pele might have to strap his boots back on.
Mbappe replied to the tweet in English saying "The king will always remain the king", quickly gaining 15,000 retw
The team is scheduled to arrive in France at around 1430 GMT, before a parade down the Champs Elysees and a formal victory at Macron at the Elysee Palace.
And it is not just the capital that has
From Nice and Marseille in the south to Lille, Nantes in the west and scores of towns and cities, TV stations were full of images of red, white and blue clad singing fans and dancing in France 's streets and squares.
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