Perched on top of a lamp post on the ChampsElysees, a young man draped in the French tricolour echoed the sound which had cascaded around the Stade de France just hours earlier.

Vive La France he shouted across the throng, and the encores flooded the broad avenue like tidal waves breaking on the shore.

It was 2.30 a.m. and the sporting success which transcended gender, class and generation was still being celebrated in a manner which many considered unthinkable in this citadel of sophistication.

France would be represented in a World Cup final for the first time and the gospel of Le Foot, derided for so long as a sport foreign to the French temperament, was being promulgated from every pulpit.

Men of ripe years likened it to the scenes on Liberation Day in 1944. A lady, too young to know the vicissitudes of war, compared it to the political and social demonstrations which have paralysed the city at regular intervals in recent years.

"Patriotism Is On The Way Back" proclaimed a local newspaper and the irony was not lost on those who, against popular opinion, had persuaded FIFA to bring football's premier championship back to France after an interval of 60 years.

A fractious country is uniting around a football team and the ideals of a pluralistic society are suddenly in vogue again as France celebrates its greatest public relations coup in years.

"I salute the unity of a team representative of French diversity," said Lionel Jospin, the Socialist prime minister. Referring to the sons of North African immigrants, known as beurs, he added: "When I see blacks and beurs clutching the French flag, singing the Marseillaise, I find them timely images."

Tracing a common thread in the success of a football team and a steady growth in the national economy, Jospin is a man who finds political capital in the success of Aime Jacquet's team.

"He likes to project himself these days as a cross between the team coach, Jacquet, and the team captain, Zinedine Zidane," wrote one commentator, "and that's a notable first for a graduate of France's elite National School of Administration."

Zidane, of Algerian descent, personifies the hybrid nature of the team which has caught the imagination of French people everywhere.

The team now known as the Whites, Blacks and Arabs may have struck a blow for the Republican philosophy of pluralism, but it has done nothing at all to attract one of its arch critics, Jean Marie le Pen.

Le Pen, whose far right party took 15 per cent of the vote in the most recent presidential election, remains unmoved by the new sporting phenomenon.

"There are too many blacks and foreigners in the team, too many people who don't know the words of the Marseillaise," he said scornfully.

That, it has to be emphasised, is a minority opinion in the current climate of euphoria. And Claude Bartolane, one of eight female members of the French cabinet, articulated the sentiments of the great majority of her compatriots when she said: "I hope the success of this team will serve to drive away racism and show the country that by uniting we can win."

These days, the popularity of football teams is often measured by the manner in which it attracts women. And judged on his criterion, Aime Jacquet's team is doing fine.

Media researchers claim that as many as 40 per cent of French women have watched at least four of the team's games on television. And in a country in which the game struggled to attract male devotees in the first instance, that is one of the most startling statistics of all.

"Like others, I was not too interested at the start," said Bernadette Lacombe, a supermarket worker. "But if you want to be part of the conversation the day after a game, you have to watch on television. Now, I think I know when they say players are offside."

World Cup delirium is of course nothing new. Twenty years on Argentinians still recall the euphoria which followed their 1978 successes; Italian celebrations in conquering the world in 1982 led to week-long celebrations, and in Ireland, of course, there was the phenomenon of the Jack Charlton years.

Now, it is the turn of France to savour the successes of its sporting sons. A people in waiting sense that their hour has come, and all of us may be enriched by the experience.

Meanwhile, Mario Zagallo, the Brazilian coach, yesterday denied reports that Rivaldo may miss Sunday's final because of an injury sustained in the win over Holland on Tuesday.

Commenting on a story that the player will not have recovered in time from an ankle injury, Zagallo said Rivaldo would train with the rest of the squad today.

"Some of our players have minor injuries, but when you play so many games in such a short time that is to be expected," he said. "Rivaldo is fit and will be available for selection."

That will do little to ease the task of France as they go in search of their first success in the championship - and neither will the impending return of Brazil's first choice right back, Cafu.

After missing the win over Holland because of suspension, Cafu is certain to reclaim his place when the side is announced less than an hour before the 8.0 p.m. (Irish time) kick-off.