Paul Pogba was the center of France’s diversity and inclusiveness

One of my favorite videos of the French national team came about 8 months ago, during an international break when France beat Wales 2-0. Paul Pogba was injured at the time, but he went to the Stade de France to support his teammates, and after the game, he stood by the locker room to congratulate the players and staff. Each player and staff member came up to him, and at one point, there was even a queue of people waiting for his attention, and Pogba had a different handshake and greeting for every person. More than that, he had a small conversation and personal joke for each one as well:

Hugo Lloris is the captain of the team, but it’s clear that Pogba is their leader. He’s the most prominent and vocal member, and the players gravitate to him in such a way that they’re willing to wait in line just to shake his hand. And he reciprocates that adoration. After France beat Croatia, Pogba was on his phone to record the celebrations, and he went from player to player doing the same thing that they did for him after the Wales game:

It’s hard to really make complete determinations about a team by what we see as fans, but one of the best things about this French team has been how celebratory and inclusive they have been, and at the center of that wonderful world is Pogba. Pogba seems to have a close individual relationship with each teammate and celebrates them, rwhether it’s Antoine Griezmann or N’Golo Kante.

Pogba represents all the best attributes of the French team and in the eyes of detractors, he’s also all the worst things about them. Had they lost, he would have surely taken the brunt of the criticism, as he has for most of the tournament and in his time on the team.

He is their lightning rod. He’s ridiculously talented but supposedly hadn’t lived up to that talent. He dances. He’s on social media a lot. He’s always changing his hairstyle. He’s young, Black, Muslim and rich, which is aggravating for people who have a stereotypical idea of what a French person is supposed to look and behave like. He embraces his African roots and he’s defiant in the face of the nonsense that he wouldn’t truly be successful until he toned down his personality. Several other members of this France team share those same qualities, and it’s not hard to imagine them denigrated in the same manner had they lost.

What this French team is then, with Pogba at the center as the leader, is a defiant and great example of what it really means to be inclusive and diverse. There’s an understanding between these young players that identity is a complex idea, and there’s no true image of what a French person is or looks like. So rather than try to reduce everyone into a predetermined notion of French, the players have taken the alternate route of loving every different representation of it. Whether it’s immigrants, the sons of immigrants, Arabs, Christians, those from a poor background or those from a wealthier foundation, all are welcome.

As Adil Rami said after their victory:

“There may be players who come from different origins, but we do have the same state of mind. We all play for the same jersey, the cockerel. For our country, we give everything we have. As soon as you wear the jersey, we do everything for each other.”

Rami, who didn’t get to play in the tournament, was still an essential part of the group. Teammates and the coaches would touch his lucky mustache before games.

This team is not special in that regard of being diverse. The 2010 team was similar but failed spectacularly, with the coach, the players and the federation all at fault for the embarrassment. What came out of that was that the team was split into different factions and some players felt ostracized.

What makes this 2018 team really great is that the differences between individuals aren’t treated as things that separate, but rather connect. Each individual is included with the greater culture and what makes them different is celebrated. They aren’t forced to conform, but join in because they feel welcome. It’s an active and reciprocal relationship between the person and the group.

Pogba goes to each player after their win, and whether it’s Raphael Varane, Benjamin Mendy, Olivier Giroud or Antoine Griezmann, he praises their individual qualities and engages with them on who they are. At the same time, the team as a whole then makes sure to embrace and look after individuals like Kante, whose quiet and reserved personality seems so distant from the majority of the squad.

When the team found out that Kimpembe had Haitian roots, their response was to embrace that side of him and dance as he played Haitian music. Even the technical staff joined in. In their celebrations in France, Pogba led the crowd in singing the now famous Kante song, and then did the same for Griezmann right after:

That symbiotic relationship even shows up on the field, and how the players look after each other. Pogba, for all the talk about his selfishness, knew that he depended on the group as they much as they depended on him:

“I spoke to the team before the match, I said to them make me win it, make me dream, make me achieve my dream. I want to thank everyone, right to the kit-man, we did everything together. The work has paid off. We are so proud to represent our country.”

He can make such demands of his teammates because of how compassionate he is to them. As he sacrificed his attacking nature to better help the team, the team also makes sure that he can be at his best. The relationship has to be active from both sides, otherwise it doesn’t work.

Videos have emerged of the halftime speeches that Pogba gave when France was down 1-2 to Argentina, against Uruguay and the speech that he gave before the final. My favorite one is his Argentina speech, where he says:

“We’re going to eat that f**king sauteed pasta again. I don’t give a shit, we’re not going home. We’re going to finish happy. I want us to have a party tonight...I want everyone. Today, we run ourselves to death out on the pitch. No one lets anyone else down. No one drops off. On the pitch, we’re all together.”

The speech is more intense but it’s really no different than Pogba standing outside the locker rooms and greeting his teammates. It’s because he’s caring towards them that they line up for him. He celebrates each one of them, the team does the same to each other, and so they’re all more willing to work for the success of the group. Diversity and inclusiveness can often seem like mere buzzwords, but what France and Pogba have shown, is that it is rooted in compassionate work. They are an example of how powerful and wonderful it can be to not just tolerate, but to truly celebrate the complexities of individuals. By making sure each person felt welcome, they created a group of people that treated each other like family.