And then there were six

Looking at the squad that won the World Cup for France back in 1998 and the group that is likely to go to Germany, there are six players who are leftovers from that triumph.

Barthez, Zidane, Vieira, Thuram, Henry and Trezeguet are going to get another chance to win the big one again and all are likely to be starters. Robert Pires is another ‘98 veteran still playing who is also waiting for the call, but he might be out of luck.

Most players usually only get about three shots at going to a World Cup in their career, if they’re lucky. With the French generation that won the tournament, fourteen also played in 2002 in Japan/Korea. Of this six left today I can only see Henry and Trezeguet as possibles for South Africa 2010.
It would be amazing if any of them could match Italian defender Guiseppe Bergomi’s record of playing in four World Cups, 1982,1986,1990 and 1998.