++ [ originally posted by Kaiser Franco ] ++
I've just checked and couldn't find any evidence regarding Barthez' "Basqueness". He might very well be a "pure" French after all.
Deschamps and Pirès however are originally Basque and Portuguese respectively.
Barthez is basque, and so is liza... but for some weird reason, though they speak a different language, I've always considered basques french maybe because Biarritz is the only cool city in france and coz Henri de Navarre reigned over france back when