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PARIS (REUTERS) – Hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic French fans celebrated the return of their football team on Monday (July 16th) by jumping and singing "We Are The Champions" as their bus parade past the Champs-Elysees. Elysées. "Les Bleus", a young dynamic team that won an open and fast 4-2 final with Croatia in Moscow, appeared at the palace of the Elysee, where they made a spontaneous interpretation of the L & # 39; National anthem "La Marseillaise" with President Emmanuel Macron and his wife
"Thank you for making us proud," Macron told the players in the gardens of the presidential palace. "Never forget where you come from: all the clubs in France that have trained."
The French media spent the day praising the team's accomplishments.
More than 300,000 people filled the Champs Elysees, around the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde on Sunday evenings, partying until early morning, singing the Marseillaise, lighting up firecrackers and horns resounding until sunrise.
"We had so much fun last night, the city was full of joy," a woman dressed in red, white and blue who had gone to Charles de Gaulle airport at BFM TV. "All we want is a wave of players." Newspapers hailed a second World Cup for France, after their first win on their ground in 1998.
"History did," the sports daily L'Equipe said. Photos of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, as well as images of the team that stood in the air and kissed the trophy in a pouring rain, dominated the cover.
The victory helped to strengthen national unity. the fact that the team, the second youngest in the competition, includes many people of Central and North African descent, even if all but two were born in France.
France has suffered years of tension and self-examination since a series of attacks perpetrated by Islamist armed men in 2015 have left more than 140 dead, including 89 dead at the Bataclan Theater in Paris. In a way, the World Cup helped to elevate the nation because it remains suspicious of the threat.
When France won its first World Cup 20 years ago with Zinedine Zidane his talisman and playmaker, the Black-White-Beur team (Black-White-Arab), a positive reference
But some were eager to put this sentence aside, seeing it as a sense of separation, even though "we are not in 1998," said Mounir Mahjoubi, the secretary of state to digital business, whose parents have emigrated from Morocco
"We do not celebrate yet" Black-White-Beur ", we celebrate fraternity," he said of the current team
METRO STATIONS
For Macron, who became president last year at the age of 39, leading his political movement toward victory against all odds.Success should also have Positive repercussions after a collapse of the polls as part of a series of reform
o the system was party, announcing that the names of a number of stations were briefly changed to honor the players and the coach, Didier Deschamps.
The station Notre-Dame des Champs was renamed "Notre Didier Deschamps" and Victor Hugo was passed to "Victor Hugo Lloris" after the captain and the goalkeeper.
Monday morning, the aftermath of the frenetic festivities of Sunday night were still visible.
A number of broken windows, a spilled car and scribbled graffiti here and there, including the phrase "Liberty, Equality, Mbappe", a reference to the national motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".
On Twitter, Brazilian legend Pelé paid tribute to the exploits of Mbappe, 19 years of France. old superstar, saying that if the teen has kept equaling his goal records, Pele might have to tie his boots on.
Mbappe responded to the tweet in English by saying "The King will always remain king", quickly gaining 15,000 retweets. [19659002] The team is scheduled to arrive in France around 1430 GMT, before a parade on the Champs-Elysees and an official reception with Macron at the Elysee.
And this is not only the capital that was consumed by
From Nice and Marseille south to Lille to the north, Nantes to the west and dozens of cities in between, the TV channels were full of images of fans dressed in red, white and blue who sang and danced the streets and squares of France.
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