When France touched down at Boston Logan International Airport this week ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the cameras were waiting, and Les Bleus did not disappoint.
Didier Deschamps’ 26-man squad checked into the Four Seasons hotel before moving to their training facilities at Bentley University, but it was the walk-through arrivals, not the training pitch, that immediately went viral.
The squad’s collective haul of Chanel, Hermès, Louis Vuitton, and Goyard turned Boston Logan into a makeshift runway, and the internet’s fashion lovers have not recovered since.
The images, shared widely by fashion accounts @StreetFashion01 and @Lesflappers, offer a masterclass in the particular strain of effortless luxury that French footballers have turned into an art form. Designer pieces worn with the nonchalance of someone who picked up their bag en route to the terminal and happened to grab a six-figure Hermès.
The French national team has long turned the tunnel walk into a signature, with players’ arrivals at Clairefontaine becoming a fixture of their pre-tournament routine. What the Boston airport moment confirms is that this squad has taken that energy global.
Thuram’s Chanel moment
The post generating the most heat features Inter Milan striker Marcus Thuram, who arrived carrying a large green suede Chanel flap bag; an oversized shoulder piece with prominent chain hardware and quilted detailing, consistent with styles from Chanel’s expanded maxi flap range. The colour alone made it a conversation piece; in suede, it pushes into statement territory.
Reaction online oscillated between unqualified admiration and the kind of performative discomfort that tends to greet men carrying luxury handbags – which, at this point, is practically a five-star review.
The Chanel maxi flap bag was named the hottest bag of 2026 so far according to Lyst, making Thuram’s airport choice either impeccably timed or entirely intuitive, both equally on-brand for a player whose father, Lilian Thuram, is a 1998 World Cup winner and whose own cultural literacy has never been in question. At retail, a Chanel flap bag of this size and material typically runs between R80 000 and R150 000, or more, depending on size, hardware, and specification.
Hermès on the tarmac
Several teammates arrived carrying Hermès pieces, the undisputed status symbol of the luxury bag world.
Rayan Cherki and Ousmane Dembélé both carried Hermès bags; Dembélé’s was a leather tote or duffel, likely another HAC configuration, while Cherki had it in what appears to be an HAC (Haut à Courroies) or structured Kelly travel variant.
The HAC is among the rarest and most coveted pieces in the Hermès stable – a precursor to the Birkin, beloved for its travel-ready silhouette, and nearly impossible to acquire without an established relationship with a Hermès sales associate.
Retail pricing for Hermès bags of this calibre typically starts at around R200 000 and can exceed R500 000 for rarer leathers, exotic skins, or limited configurations. Footballers and other fashion-lovers like Wisdom Kaye, of this profile, often carry variants unavailable to the general public.
The Louis Vuitton holdall
Rounding out the viral haul, Jules Koundé, whose fashion credentials are well established, arrived with a brown Louis Vuitton monogram duffle, consistent with the classic Keepall silhouette that has remained a travel staple since the brand’s trunk-making origins.
Between R25 000 and R45 000 at retail, it is the most accessible piece in the group, which is to say, still firmly in investment territory for most. Additional Goyard and Chanel pieces were spotted across the broader squad.
More than a moment
The timing is not incidental. For the 2026 FIFA World Cup, fashion labels competed fiercely to win the favour of national teams, with France arriving in a Nike x Jacquemus collaboration that frames their campaign as much as a cultural event as a sporting one.
The country that gave the world Zinedine Zidane, Kylian Mbappé, and Chanel has traditionally set the bar high not only on the field, but in the city around it.
