In the 1996 Euros, hosted by England, the French National Team were playing 2 fixtures at St James Park and therefore needed facilities to train in the North East. After exploring their options the FA and the FFF would ring up David Thompson, the head teacher of Haydon Bridge High School and ask if they could use their school. He obviously though some one was pranking him but before he knew it he had legends like Zidane, Desailly and Deschamps doing drills in his school fields.
Imagine this, you’re in year 10 just leaving your double English lesson, heading over to Science and you see Zidane training outside the window. Just Crazy
The school staff have come out and said how pleasant the players were with the kids, constantly taking photos and signing autographs and the players who didn’t play against Romania actually played a friendly against the county’s U-19s
After the tournament the FFF left a lot of their gear and kits to the school as a thank you present. Which meant the schools football team were wearing the classic 1996 France shirts to their locals games for years after that.
What a class kit they got to wear! Shiny/matte FFF patterns woven into the base, adidas stripes coming down the front in the French flag colours, and of course the beautiful laced polo collar
We have this shirt for sale here!
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