France's World Cup Celebration Party Was Wonderfully Joyous

Yesterday, France beat the Netherlands in a fairly meaningless international match. While the match itself didn’t matter, it did have the distinction of being the first time the French national team had returned to their home stadium since this summer’s glorious World Cup victory. To commemorate the occasion, the team threw a huge, fantastic party.

At one point in the night, the whole team hopped around the stadium belting out all the lyrics to French rapper Vegedream’s World Cup anthem “ Ramenez la coupe a la maison” (“Bring the cup back home” in English). These guys look so goddamn happy—for themselves, for each other, and for France as a whole:

The best parts of the evening’s celebration, similar to the best parts of the team’s tournament-winning performance, featured N’Golo Kanté. Unlike the selfless defensive midfielder’s actions on the pitch, though, this time Kanté’s involvement was front and center for everyone to see. His teammates lifted him on their shoulders when the part of “Ramenez la coupe a la maison” that shouts him out came on—

—and everyone in the stadium serenaded Kanté with the song fans created after France beat Argentina:

It’s physiologically impossible not to see Kanté’s beaming face in light of all that adoration and not feel your heart swell. France were the coolest team in the World Cup, and it’s cool that they won and got to celebrate like this.

Here’s a longer video with even more from yesterday’s festivities: