all time top scorer for france national team
List of leading goalscorers for the France national football team As hundreds of players have played for the team since it started officially registering its players in 1904, only players with 10 or more official goals are included. The national team's record goal-scorer is Thierry Henry, who scored 51 total goals in 123 competitive appearances for the team between 1997 and 2010. Henry surpassed Michel Platini, the previous all-time leading goal-scorer, on 17 October 2007 in a match against Lithuania. Henry is the only player to have reached the half-century mark in goals for the national team.[1] Henry is followed by Platini, who scored 41 goals, David Trézéguet, who netted 34 goals, Olivier Giroud with 32 goals and Zinedine Zidane, with 31 goals.[2] Henry, Trézéguet, and Zidane were members of the team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, while Platini captained France to victory at UEFA Euro 1984.
Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi Cuccittini[note 1] (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈðɾes ˈmesi] ( listen); born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. Often considered the best player in the world and regarded by many as the greatest of all time, Messi is the only player in history to win five FIFA Ballon d'Or awards,[note 2] four of which he won consecutively, and a record-tying four European Golden Shoes.[note 3] He has won 29 trophies with Barcelona, including eight La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles, and five Copas del Rey. Both a prolific goalscorer and a creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most official goals scored in La Liga (361), a La Liga season (50), a club football season in Europe (73), a calendar year (91), as well as those for most assists made in La Liga (140) and the Copa América (11). He has scored over 600 senior career goals for club and country.
Lionel Messi During the 2003–04 season, his fourth with Barcelona, Messi rapidly progressed through the club's ranks, debuting for a record five teams in a single campaign. After being named player of the tournament in four international pre-season competitions with the Juveniles B, he played only one official match with the team before being promoted to the Juveniles A, where he scored 18 goals in 11 league games.[30][31] Messi was then one of several youth players called up to strengthen a depleted first team during the international break. French Winger Ludovic Giuly explained how a teenage Leo caught the eye in a training session with Frank Rijkaard's first team: "He destroyed us all... They were kicking him all over the place to avoid being ridiculed by this kid, he just got up and kept on playing. He would dribble past four players and score a goal. Even the team's starting centre-backs were nervous. He was an alien."[32] At 16 years, four months, and 23 days old, he made his first team debut when he came on in the 75th minute during a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto on 16 November 2003.[21][33] His performance, creating two chances and a shot on goal, impressed the technical staff, and he subsequently began training daily with the club's reserve side, Barcelona B, as well as weekly with the first team.[34] After his first training session with the senior squad, Barça's new star player, Ronaldinho, told his teammates that he believed the 16-year-old would become an even better player than himself.[35] Ronaldinho soon befriended Messi, whom he called "little brother", which greatly eased his transition into the first team.[36][37]
2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition (the first was in 1974 as West Germany), and the tenth time that it was held in Europe.