Fabien Barthez entertains in first France session as goalkeeping coach

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·21 September 2026

Fabien Barthez looked unchanged, delivering mischief and ribbing in his first session with Les Bleus as France’s goalkeeping coach.

According to L'Équipe, seeing Zinédine Zidane and Barthez walk down to the Michel Platini pitch at Clairefontaine stirred nostalgia.

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For over-30s, the scene recalled moments from Les Yeux dans les Bleus.

There was a blend of intimate emotion and mild astonishment at witnessing the first training of this new era at 18:00 on Monday.

On the grass, Barthez hit the ball with power, traded jokes and let the odd swear word slip, his style firmly his own.

Source: L'Équipe

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”