Pascal Chimbonda, the biggest surprise in France’s World Cup squad lists | OneFootball

The documentary "9 juillet 2006", now online on L'Équipe, revisits France’s 2006 World Cup and the shock call-up of Wigan right-back Pascal Chimbonda.

On 14 May 2006 on TF1, Raymond Domenech named his 23 for Germany, selecting Chimbonda as Willy Sagnol’s deputy ahead of Lyon’s Anthony Réveillère.

Aged 27, the Wigan defender was little known in France but far from anonymous in the Premier League, having just made the team of the season as best right-back.

As soon as the list dropped, Les Guignols de l’info seized on it with a spoof of DJ BoBo’s Chihuahua, reworked as Chimbonda. The public loved it and the tune became a World Cup hit, though the player did not enjoy the joke.

The unwanted fame stung all the more as he played only two minutes in a May 2006 friendly against Denmark. The film notes that the one-cap international still had a musical footnote, when after the quarter-final win over Brazil, Zidane sang his song while dancing on the dressing-room table.

Source: L'Équipe