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PARIS (Reuters) – Newspapers and TV stations hailed France's World Cup victory on Monday, while clean-up crews worked against the clock at a crazy night's party in Paris ahead of a victory parade down the Champs Elysees.
"Our Day of Glory Is Here" declared Le Figaro, referencing a rousing line from the Marseillaise anthem.
"History Made" Posted sports daily The team, while business newspaper Les Echos went for the more straightforward "Champions of the World". Photos of superstars Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba, dominated coverage.
The victory has created a sense of national unity, with commentators playing the role of the squad, the second-youngest in the competition, including many with a central African heritage.
When the country won its first World Cup in 1998, when Zinedine Zidane was its talisman and playmaker, the team was referred to as "Black-White-Beur" (Black-White-Arab), a positive reference to its diverse ethnic make-up.
But some were keen to push 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.
Videos Emmanuel Macron, who could barely contain his excitement, how to do a "dab".
METRO STATIONS
For Macron, who became president last year at the age of 39, taking his political movement to victory against the odds, the football team's success is likely to have positive repercussions after a slump in the polls.
The Paris metro system got into the celebratory mood, announcing the names of a number of stations were changed by Didier Deschamps.
So Our Lady of the Fields was relabeled "Our Didier Deschamps", and Victor Hugo was switched to "Victor Hugo Lloris" after the captain and goalkeeper.
The 2 km Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe and the vast Place de la Concorde turned into a heaving sea of people on Sunday night, red waving, white and blue flags, setting off firecrackers and blowing horns until early morning.
On Monday, the after-effects were still visible. A number of smashed windows, an overturned and graffiti scrawled here and there, including the phrase "Liberty, Equality, Mbappe", reference to the national motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".
On Twitter, Brazil legend Pele paid tribute to the exploits of Mbappe, France's standout, 19-year-old superstar, saying that if the teenager kept equaling his goal-scoring records, Pele might have to strap his boots back on.
Mbappe replied to the tweet saying "The king will always remain the king", quickly gaining 15,000 retweets.
The team is scheduled to arrive in France at 1400 GMT, with crowds set to gather at Charles de Gaulle airport to receive them. A parade down the Champs Elysees is scheduled for 1530 GMT, and there will be a formal victory at Macron at the Elysee Palace at 1630 GMT.
And it's not just in Paris that the nation has been taken over with football fever. From Nice and Marseille in the south to Lille in the north, Nantes in the west and scores of towns and cities in between, TV stations were full of images of red, white and blue clad fans singing in streets and squares.
Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Alison Williams
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