At the same time, he was going through tough times with the national football team coached by Gérard Houllier, but the Parisian public never seemed to begrudge him for that. In fact, he would go on to become one of the most popular footballers among the notoriously uncompromising Parisian supporters. He became such a fan favorite that, even when he admitted that he supported Paris Saint-Germain's fierce rivals Olympique Marseille as a boy and that he would have joined them rather than PSG had an agreement been struck with Bernard Tapie, his popularity did not suffer any consequence.