French Ambassador Slams Trevor Noah for Saying Africa Won World Cup

The French ambassador to the U.S. has hit out at Trevor Noah for joking that Africa deserved the credit for France’s World Cup victory. Noah said “Africa won the World Cup” in a segment on The Daily Show on Monday, a day after France beat Croatia 4-2 in Moscow. “I get it, they have to say it’s the French team,” he joked. “But look at those guys. You don’t get that tan by hanging out in the south of France, my friends.” Ambassador Gerard Araud wrote a letter to Noah saying he was watching “with great attention” on Monday, but that he wasn’t laughing. “I heard your words about ‘an African victory,’ nothing could be less true... By calling them an African team, it seems you are denying their Frenchness,” Araud said his letter Wednesday. “This, even in jest, legitimizes the ideology which claims whiteness as the only definition of being French.” Noah responded via a video posted on Twitter, saying: “I will continue to praise them for being African because I believe they are of Africa—their parents are from Africa—and they can be French, because I believe they can both at the same time.”