France’s World Cup winner Frank Leboeuf recently sat down to talk to Get French Football News about Ligue 1, France and the links between his former clubs RC Strasbourg Alsace and Chelsea.

When we spoke last year, he expressed concern over the multi-club model and the fact that, in the case of BlueCo, it could have a negative effect on both of his former employers. Since then, Strasbourg have qualified for Europe and Chelsea have won the Club World Cup, and his view seems to have softened a little – at least in the short term: “Well, I’m happy. I’m happy with the way it works. I’m happy how Strasbourg can get results, and for the second season, everything seems to be spot on.” 

He remains concerned, however, for the Alsatian club in the longer term: “Now, I wonder about the long term, what’s going to happen to the club because every time, you have good players doing great for Strasbourg, they’re going to go back to Chelsea or they’re going to be sold to somebody else because we all know the business system that the Chelsea board is undertaking,” Lebouef told us.

He added, “It’s good, fans are happy right now, the players are giving 100%, but what’s going to happen within one, two, three years, I don’t know. So I’m always keeping myself aware of what’s going on.”

Lebouef on Strasbourg: ‘I don’t feel the stability right now.’

Leboeuf is realistic, however, about the financial constraints and imperatives under which his former team-mate Marc Keller is working as Strasbourg president, despite the protests of some fan groups: “I don’t feel the stability right now that I would love to see at Strasbourg. But that’s also the only way that Marc has found to make sure that Strasbourg can respond to any financial issues. So it’s fair.” 

Strasbourg currently sit fourth in Ligue 1 and are well on course for Champions League qualification, and Leboeuf was particularly impressed with the club’s recent performance against European champions PSG, who were arguably lucky to come away from the match with a 3-3 draw: “I’m pleased because I never expected to see this level from young players. I saw the game Paris Saint-Germain against Strasbourg. I mean, that was a hell of a game. Paris thought they would have an easy task, but Strasbourg resisted so well and played so well that it was a great game to watch.”

As brilliantly as his former club are performing, they do not have any players close to France’s senior squad, as attention begins to turn to the World Cup, where Les Bleus are, in Leboeuf’s view, one of the four favourites: “I see four teams capable of winning the World Cup. Argentina, of course, they’re going to defend their title. France, Spain and Portugal. What about England? No, for me those are the four contenders.” 

Despite putting France in the favourites bracket, Leboeuf still has concerns over Les Bleus’ midfield and more particularly the centre-back position where he used to ply his trade: “We don’t know what the best pairing is because you have Ibrahima Konate, William Saliba, Dayot Upamecano and some others, and they’re all very talented. Right now, there is a lack of chemistry between any of them, so that’s something you have to find, like at the time when Laurent Blanc and Marcel Desailly were playing togethe,r and you could feel that they were working hard together and they were understanding each other. So that’s the thing that Didier Deschamps has to find before the World Cup starts, to make sure that we can stabilise and be strong at the back.”

Lebouef believes France and Zidane could be ‘perfect match’

This will be Deschamps’ last tournament as France coach, with Zinédine Zidane the man widely expected to take over. And after Deschamps’ achievements over the past 13 years, Leboeuf believes that Zidane faces a tough challenge – but one that he is capable of meeting: “It will be a big change. It’s going to be a hard task for Zidane because the level that Deschamps has reached is so high – two World Cup finals, one win and a European Championship final as well – and brought the national team up to be one of the best in the world.”

“Since 1998, we have played four World Cup finals, and so Zidane can only do better than that to be accepted, and that’s going to be a big task. But we know the talent. He showed it with Real Madrid and we know his love for football and the national team. So I want to believe that he’s going to be the next after Deschamps, and he’s going to do very well because he’s an icon, he’s a real legend of football, of France. If he can be successful, that would be a perfect match for me,” the former France international told us.