Announced March 24, 2022, the partnership between Xbox and the French Football Federation (FFF) materializes a little more with the arrival of a first big video which is none other than a 35-minute documentary which is reminiscent of the documentary film “Les Yeux dans les Bleus” released in 1998 after the victory of the French team at the World Cup. Blaise Matuidi, Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Kingsley Coman, Jonathan Clauss, Mattéo Guendouzi, but also the players of the French women’s team such as Clara Matéo, Delphine Cascarino (very moving in the documentary), Kadidiatou Diani and Griedge Mbock Bhaty Nka, the Xbox France team was indeed able to talk with them for several days. The idea behind this initiative? Create a bridge between the ambitions that these players can nurture on the field and those that Microsoft can have towards its new Xbox Series X|S. It is obviously a form of communication between the two brands which wish to address young people, who can share the same passions: football and video games. With this gaming partnership, Xbox offers itself a great gateway to a sporting and cultural place that affects millions of people, especially young children. Creating a bond with these future champions from an early age is indeed a rather clever strategy on the part of Microsoft, especially in a country like France which tends to be won over to the PlayStation cause.
This first documentary is actually only episode 0, since other videos (10 in total – 5 players / 5 players) will reinforce the portrait of each of these players, evoking their first dreams, their journey, the joys but also the difficulties before being in the light. The intervention of Jonathan Clauss is also quite interesting, explaining that he had very low passages, which he does not wish to share to avoid waking up bad memories. This is also what the coaches on site (when we were away at Clairefontaine) explained to us that it is important for them to tell the truth to these young people who dream of being the new Kylian Mbappé. They are 3 million to dream of having the same trajectory, but only a dozen of them will succeed. They also spoke of the difficulty of dealing with this new generation, fed on social networks, sometimes in control of their communication, but which can be dangerous if it is not controlled. We had examples of excesses, but as the coaches reminded us, they are there to guide them, not to mother them. It’s their career, not the coaches’.
The Xbox France team is therefore part of this philosophy that it seems to share with the FFF, which reminded us that talent is not enough, that it takes work, perseverance and also a lot of desire. Healthy values that are advocated throughout this documentary film that we invite you to watch, football fan or not.
