By Elsa Girard-Basset | Web journalist
After the exploits of 1998 and 2000, the French team experienced a brutal crash during the 2002 World Cup. The causes are multiple, but concerns had already arisen from a very specific preparation match before flying to Asia. Frank Leboeuf also has serious suspicions about this, and for him, there is no doubt: doping had happened there.
Too much success, too much confidence, too much of everything. All cycles of domination must come to an end, and very often, it is in pain and uproar that the change of era occurs. In 2002, the French team learned this the hard way by being pitifully eliminated in the group stage of the World Cup played in South Korea and Japan, all without scoring a single goal.
Did the Blues see themselves as too good? In any case, it is clear that the preparation had already raised alarm signals. Beaten at home by Belgium, the French then struggled to defeat Korea (3-2) on May 26. A match which left them with a very strange memory, with a taste of suspicion.
In the program “Le Vestiaire”, Emmanuel Petit highlighted the impressive influence of the Koreans on the meeting, with a physical density that was unknown to them until now. Enough to disconcert the reigning world and European champions:
We said to ourselves, what is this madness? It’s one of the hardest matches I’ve had to play with the France team. On each ball, there were three players!
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Frank Leboeuf accuses South Korea of doping
Visibly overmotivated in the run-up to their World Cup at home, during which they reached the semi-finals benefiting from some favorable refereeing decisions, the Koreans stunned the French. For Frank Leboeuf, who only moderately believes in miracles, the explanation can be summed up in one word: doping.
The guys were loaded like mules! They went to the semi-finals, we have to stop! We didn’t see them afterwards, we didn’t see them before… The year before, we played them in the Confederations Cup, we gave them 5-0 or 5-1, I swear! Don’t you ask yourself any questions? Wait! It was going at 2,000 an hour, even though they were 1m60 tall.
And Christophe Dugarry concludes on this decidedly slightly paranormal evening at the Suwon stadium:
We returned to the locker room after the match, we felt like we had won the World Cup final!
Like the Russians when they organized their own World Cup in 2018, the South Koreans were indeed at a much higher level than usual during this 2022 World Cup. Were they galvanized by the opportunity, or were they chemically boosted as Frank Leboeuf proclaims loud and clear? Everyone will have their own opinion on the matter.
