France

Before the 1980's France enjoyed limited success at the World Cup finals, with a semi final appearance in 1958 their only showing of note. In the 1980's however, led by Michel Platini, France made successive semi finals, losing out to West Germany on both occasions.
After that a period of gloom ensued as France failed to make both the 1990 and the 1994 finals, however in 1998 they finally won their first and only trophy on home soil with a memorable 3-0 win over Brazil, inspired by arguably their greatest ever player Zinedine Zidane.
France made the final again 8 years later, however Zidane was sent off in disgrace for a heatbutt on Italy's Marco Materazzi and the Italians went on to win the penalty shoot-out.