Clairefontaine (football)
National Technical Centre entrance
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| Established | 1988 |
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| Location | France |
| Coordinates | 48°36′52.07″N 1°55′27.55″E / 48.6144639°N 1.9243194°ECoordinates: 48°36′52.07″N 1°55′27.55″E / 48.6144639°N 1.9243194°E |
Le Centre Technique National Fernand Sastre (English: Fernand Sastre National Technical Centre), commonly referred to as INF Clairefontaine ("Institut national du football de Clairefontaine"), INF, or simply Clairefontaine, is the national football centre that specializes in training French football players. The academy is one of twelve élite academies located in and around France that are supervised by the French Football Federation (FFF). Only the best players from the Île-de-France région train at the Clairefontaine academy. The eleven other academies are situated in Castelmaurou, Châteauroux, Liévin, Dijon, Marseille, Ploufragan, Vichy and Reims, Réunion, Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, and Talence.
Clairefontaine opened in 1988 and is named after Fernand Sastre, the president of the FFF from 1972–1984. The academy is located 50 km southwest of Paris at Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines and is one of the best known football academies in the world. It has a high reputation of producing some of the most gifted French players including Nicolas Anelka, Louis Saha, William Gallas, Hatem Ben Arfa, Abou Diaby, Sébastien Bassong, Mehdi Benatia, Blaise Matuidi, Olivier Giroud and national team top scorer Thierry Henry. The academy is also used to house the national football teams of France and the centre drew media spotlight following its usage as a base camp by the France team that won the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
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