France Sports – The Most Popular Sports in France

The Most Popular French Sports

Find below the national sports in France, ranked by popularity:

So there you have them, the most famous sports of France! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in France.

What is the National Sport of France ?

The national sport of France is Football.

Everyone in France loves football. Whether it is for the national men’s or women’s team, which are by the way both very successful, the sport is widely appreciated throughout the country.

The national league, the Ligue 1, is the fifth highest-level European championship, and many teams, like Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais are very famous.

Lyon Olympique Stadium

Learn More About France Popular Sports

France is a transcontinental country that has colonies all around the globe, making it the number one country in the world in terms of time zones, with 12. Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe, and its capital city is Paris, which has more than 655,000 inhabitants (but more than 12,000,000 if you include the metropolitan area!).

An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all France popular sports, and I hope you will love them:

Football

The most popular sport in France is, like most countries around the world, football.

One of the things worth noting about football in France is the success of both its teams: the men’s football team is the current World Cup champion, and the women’s is in the top 10 teams of the world.

The national league features emblematic teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnais.

Both national clubs and the national team create a lot of emotions around the country, and the streets of France are usually deserted during an important football match, like the 2018 World Cup Final against Croatia.

Number of Football licensed players in France: 2,200,000 (including 180,000 women)

Famous French Football players: Didier Deschamps, Zinédine Zidane, Thierry Henry, Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba, Karim Benzema, Hugo Lloris, Antoine Griezmann, Michel Platini.

Tennis

The second most popular sport in France is tennis.

You must have heard of Roland-Garros. It is one of the major worldwide tournaments, and international stars head to Paris every year to participate in the competition. The last French winner of Roland-Garros is Yannick Noah, in 1983, and he has now become a famous French singer, believe it or not! His son, Joakim Noah, is also very famous as he is a successful NBA player.

France currently has many great tennis players like Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but none of them are in the top 5 world rankings. In fact, some French social media pages make fun of them quite often.

Number of Tennis licensed players in France: 1,000,000

Famous French Tennis players: Gaël Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, René Lacoste, Suzanne Lenglen, Kristina Mladenovic, Nicolas Mahut, Yannick Noah, Amélie Mauresmo.

Horse riding

The third most popular sport in France is horse riding.

Quite surprisingly, horse riding is very popular in France, with 670,000 registered horse riders. While the competition does not draw much interest, it is rather a pastime that many appreciate.

In fact, France is reputed for its horse breeds, especially in Normandy. There are also very prestigious horse races in the country, like the “Arc de Triomphe” race in Paris, and the “Longchamp” racetrack.

Number of Horse riding licensed players in France: 670,000

Famous French Horse riding players: Jacques Cariou, Alexandra Ledermann, Aurélien Kahn, Denis Mesples, Jean-Yves Touzaint, Jessica Michel, Lionel Guyon, Marcel Delestre, Morgan Barbançon, Nicolas Touzaint, Olivier Guillon, Simon Delestre.

Basketball

The fourth most popular sport in France is basketball.

You have probably heard of many widely successful French players in the NBA, like Tony Parker, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum or Rudy Gobert. This is because France is the country with the highest number of foreign players in the NBA.

The national team is extremely good, and they recently beat the almighty United States in the 2019 World Cup quarterfinals. In Europe though, France is not competitive enough to win the EuroLeague.

Number of Basketball licensed players in France: 600,000

Famous French Basketball players: Tony Parker, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Rudy Gobert, Joakim Noah, Ian Mahinmi, Nando de Colo, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, Théo Maledon.

Judo-jujitsu

The fifth most popular sport in France is judo-jujitsu.

While there are many great French judokas, two of them stand out way above the rest. David Douillet was one of the best in his category, with 2 Olympic gold medals, 4 World Champion titles, and 1 European Champion title. After him came the legend Teddy Riner, simply the best judoka in the history of the sport, with 2 Olympic gold medals, 10 World Champion titles and 5 European Champion titles.

Number of Judo-jujitsu licensed players in France: 550,000

Famous French Judo-jujitsu players: Teddy Riner, David Douillet, Clarisse Agbegnenou, Franck Chambily, Émilie Andéol, Frédéric Lecanu, Axel Clerget, Amandine Buchard, Marie-Ève Gahié.

Handball

The sixth most popular sport in France is handball.

Handball is yet another sport where France is vastly successful on a worldwide scale. It has most likely been the most dominant country for the past two decades, being rivaled only by European northern countries. The team is a 6-times World Champion, 2-times Olympic Champion, and 3-times European Champion.

This trend is relatively recent though: before 1995, the men’s handball team had never won any trophy. We are truly witnessing the Golden Age of French handball.

Number of Handball licensed players in France: 510,000

Famous French Handball players: Nikola Karabatic, Thierry Omeyer, Luc Abalo, Guillaume Gille, Jérôme Fernandez, Michaël Guigou, Bertrand Gille, Luka Karabatic, Kentin Mahé.

Rugby

The seventh most popular sport in France is rugby.

You might be surprised by rugby being only seventh on this list, but the reason is quite simple: while it is quite popular as a whole in the country, it is only very famous in the South of France, and in Paris.

In terms of competition, national teams participating in the “Top 14” are some of the best European clubs. These include ASM Clermont, Stade Toulousain and RCT Rugby Club Toulonnais.

The national team can be very surprising, sometimes losing to weak countries like Italy, some others dethroning the legendary All-Blacks, in the 2007 World Cup quarterfinals, after one of the most memorable hakas in history.

Number of Rugby licensed players in France: 435,000

Famous French Rugby players: Sébastien Chabal, Philippe Saint-André, Serge Blanco, Fabien Pelous, Philippe Sella, Thierry Dusautoir, Vincent Clerc, Yannick Jauzion, Bernard Laporte, Christophe Dominici. 

Golf

The eighth most popular sport in France is golf.

The history of golf in France dates back to 1856, when the first golf course was created in Pau by the British living in the region. The “Fédération Française de Golf” was later founded in 1912, and it overrules the amateur and professional golf practice in the country.

Nowadays, there are more than 600,000 French golfers, including 410,000 licensed players. There are 733 clubs in the country, and 27.5% of women golfers.

Number of Golf licensed players in France: 410,000

Famous French Golf players: Jean Van de Velde, Arnaud Massy, Karine Icher, Thomas Levet, Victor Dubuisson, Grégory Havret, Raphaël Jacquelin, Marc Farry, Alexander Lévy, Grégory Bourdy, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet.

Canoeing

The ninth most popular sport in France is canoeing.

Believe it or not, France can be a very wild country, and there are many amazing landscapes. These often include beautiful rivers that run through the country as well as magnificent mountains like the Alps or the Pyrenees.

This leads to a vast interest in canoeing in France. The most successful French athlete in this sport is Tony Estanguet, who won the Olympic gold medal 3 times, and who is currently working on the organization of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Number of Canoeing licensed players in France: 380,000

Famous French Canoeing players: Tony Estanguet, Cyrille Carré, Philippe Colin, Babak Amir Tahmasseb.

Sailing

The tenth most popular sport in France is sailing.

Last but not least, sailing is also vastly appreciated in France. Not only are there rivers and mountains in the country, but there is also an ocean (the Atlatinc) as well as a sea (the Mediterranean).

On top of that, many prestigious sailing competitions start in France, like the “Route du Rhum” and the “Vendée Globe”, which largely helps with the popularity of the sport.

Number of Sailing licensed players in France: 300,000

Famous French Sailing players: Florence Arthaud, Éric Tabarly, Vincent Riou, Catherine Chabaud, Maud Fontenoy, Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, François Gabart, Loïck Peyron.

So there you have them, these were all the most famous sports in France. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.

In case you want to learn more about sports in other countries, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about:

Is rugby more popular than football in France?

You might have heard of the vast popularity of rugby in France. While it is true that the sport is very appreciated in the country, football is still by far the #1 sport.

Also, rugby is mostly popular in the south of the country. If everyone would play it all around the country, it would probably be the most popular sport.

Is France good at rugby?

The French rugby team is one of the best in the world: currently, it is ranked 6th, after New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, England and Ireland.

The sport has been played in the country since 1872, and France has competed in every single Rugby World Cup since its beginnings in 1987, even qualifying for the knock-out stage each time. They never won the World Cup though, but finished as runners-up in 1987, 1999 and 2011.

Why is rugby more popular in the South of France?

I already told you how rugby is way more popular in the South of France. In fact, most people play rugby instead of football in these regions, so it is actually more popular than football… but only in the bottom half of the country.

Why is that? The first reason is that historically, most Commonwealth traders would stay around the southern ports of France, on the “Côte d’Azur”, bringing the sport to the country. Another big reason was that every sport besides football was banned during World War II, and the advent of the Vichy government (pro-Nazi).

More Sport Facts!

Loved these France sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?

Then check out these posts:

• Famous Sports in Italy
• Famous Sports in Portugal
• Famous Sports in Spain

Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.

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