The Four Seasons hotel opposite Boston’s Public Garden is starting to feel like home to the French team. World Cup squads traditionally prefer calmer locations, but players nowadays have different tastes, French football federation president Philippe Diallo told me on Saturday. With the team scattered for a day of family time, Diallo talks over morning coffee in a dining room empty but for a hefty Boston cop, part of France’s security team, grabbing a late breakfast.
Les Bleus hope to spend several more weeks here. That would start with beating Sweden in the second round on Tuesday and going deep in the tournament. Diallo marvels at the attack featuring France’s all-time top goalscorer Kylian Mbappé, world footballer of the year Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise, whom he calls a possible future winner of Dembélé’s prize. Yet Diallo is measured. “Football is made of surprises. It’s up to us to avoid a bad surprise.”
