This great clip sees Frank LeBouef, Marcel Desailly and Lillian Thuram – some quite decent defenders; it must be said – talking of the potential tactics with which to subdue Ronaldo, in the build up to 1998 World Cup final.

Sadly, Ronaldo never showed the incredible threat the French defenders discuss here, putting in an uncharacteristically flat performance (later attributed to a fit he suffered on the day of the game).

France won the game 3-0 with two goals from Zinedine Zidane and one from Emmanuel Petit, and in the process lifting their first, and only, World Cup in front of a frenzied home crowd in Paris.

Ronaldo would go on to win the golden boot at the 2002 World Cup and set the record for the most World Cup goals of all time in 2006. However, he was perhaps never again seen as such an inhumanly terrifying striker as he was on the eve of the ’98 World Cup final.

As an aside, Desailly was sent off for two bookable offences.