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L'Equipe is one of France's leading newspaper dailies devoted to sports. The French media outlet is very famous and is widely known for being quite harsh with their performance assessments and ratings.
L'Equipe evaluates player performances in domestic league and cup games, European matches, and international competitions.
L'Equipe are usually very stingy with their ratings
The UEFA Champions League also falls within its ambit. L'Equipe have placed the bar very high with regards to what they consider a perfect or complete performance. Since their formation in 1946, L'Equipe have given a 10/10 rating to only 13 players.
Yes, you read that right. Only 13 players have been awarded a 10/10 performance by L'Equipe in the span of 76 years.
Without further ado, let's take a look at those 13 players who were given perfect 10/10 ratings by L'Equipe.
#13 Franck Sauzee vs Greece u21s, 1988
L'Equipe's first two 10/10 ratings were given to two u-21 players in the same game. It was in the second leg of France's U21 European Championship final against Greece. France midfielder Franck Sauzee whipped out a masterclass of a performance, scoring two goals and helping France to a 3-0 win in the game.
That was arguably the greatest performance of his career. He went on to appear in 39 international games for the French senior side, scoring nine goals in the process. Sauzee also won the Ligue 1 title thrice with Marseille.
#12 Bruno Martini vs Greece u21s, 1988
The 1988 U21 European Championship final was a game that was thoroughly well received at L'Equipe. In addition to Sauzee, France's goalkeeper Bruno Martini was also awarded a 10/10 rating for his heroics between the sticks.
He helped France keep a clean sheet in the final against Greece as the Blues won the game 3-0.
#11 Oleg Salenko vs Cameroon, 1994
L'Equipe did not give any player a 10/10 rating for six years after the 1988 U21 European Championship final. Then along came Russian striker Oleg Salenko. He scored six goals in the 1994 FIFA World Cup and ended up sharing the Golden Boot with Bulgaria's Hristo Stoichkov.
Salenko scored as many as five goals as Russia thumped Cameroon 6-1 in the group stage. He earned a 10/10 rating for that but unfortunately, that was the last time that Salenko turned out for Russia.
#10 Lars Windfeld vs Nantes, 1997
Lars Windfeld is a Danish goalkeeper who was denied the limelight by the legendary Peter Schmeichel. Windfeld was playing for Danish club Aarhus in 1998 and they were up against Nantes in the first knockout stage of the UEFA Cup.
After the first leg ended 2-2, Windfeld produced a powerhouse second-leg performance to keep Nantes at bay and help his side to a narrow win. He earned a 10/10 rating from L'Equipe for his awe-inspiring display.
#9 Lionel Messi vs Barcelona, 2010 and Lionel Messi vs Bayer Leverkusen, 2012
Okay, we're in familiar territory now. Of course, Lionel Messi was going to be amongst the players that L'Equipe have given a 10/10 rating to.
He produced an otherworldly performance for Barcelona against Arsenal in the 2010 UEFA Champions League. Messi scored four goal for the Catalans as they beat the Gunners 4-1.
He was unstoppable on the night and helped Barcelona record a 6-3 win on aggregate with his masterful performance.
Lionel Messi earned his second 10/10 performance when he scored five goals against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in 2012. The Argentinian international helped Barcelona thrash the Bundesliga outfit 7-1 on the night.
He was at the peak of his powers and was taking defenders on and beating them with ease. He scooped the ball over the goalkeeper, curled one into the top bin, dinked over the keeper again, latched on to a rebound and ended the night with a neat finish from the edge of the area.
Messi is the only player to have received two 10/10 ratings in the history of L'Equipe.
#8 Robert Lewandowski vs Real Madrid, 2013
Robert Lewandowski became the first player to score a Champions League hat-trick against Real Madrid in 2013. He turned in his finest performance in a Borussia Dortmund shirt as he scored four goals in their 4-1 win over Los Blancos in the first leg of the semi-final.
Jurgen Klopp, who was Borussia Dortmund coach at the time, joked:
"That was like Robin Hood taking from the rich."
#7 Carlos Eduardo vs Guingamp, 2014
Carlos Eduardo has been a journeyman throughout and his career has been very so-so. Porto and Nice are the most high-profile clubs that the Brazilian has played for. Eduardo was on loan at Nice from Porto in 2014 when he scored a whopping five goals against Guingamp.
He scored a first-half hat-trick and followed it up by banging in two more in the second half. Eduardo earned the distinction of being one of the very few players to have received a 10/10 rating from L'Equipe that night.
#6 Neymar Jr. vs Dijon, 2018
The game where Neymar Jr. got his 10/10 rating from L'Equipe is more famous for the wrong reasons. The Brazilian international was booed by the home support for trying to take the ball from Edinson Cavani for a last-minute penalty.
Neymar had scored four goals and provided two assists as PSG beat Dijon 8-0 on the night. It might have been greedy, but it's just not fair to boo a player who has made six direct goal contributions in a game, is it?
#5 Dusan Tadic vs Real Madrid, 2019
Dusan Tadic was tipped to go onto do great things when he first emerged on the scene. He had all the talent in the world but after an underwhelming four-year stint with Southampton, it didn't look like all that potential was going to amount to much.
But Tadic went onto revive his career at Ajax. The Serbian international was the heart of Erik Ten Hag's side that made it to the semi-finals of the 2018-19 UEFA Champions League. Tadic produced a masterclass of a performance against Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
After Real Madrid won the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu by a 2-1 scoreline, Ajax had it all to do in the second leg. Tadic took the game by the scruff of its neck. He was the creator-in-chief as Hakim Ziyech scored the opener for the Dutch outfit.
He then drove through the Real Madrid midfield and produced an unbelievable piece of skill to bamboozle the opponents to set up David Neres for Ajax's second. Tadic topped it off with a top corner strike in the 62nd minute to make it 3-0 in favour of Ajax. They won the second leg 4-1 and the tie 5-3 on aggregate.
#4 Lucas Moura vs Ajax, 2019
Shortly after Ajax had thumped Real Madrid, they were up against Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-finals. Ajax won the first leg 1-0 at home. They proceeded to knock the wind out of Spurs' sails in the first half of the second leg.
Matthijs De Ligt and Hakim Ziyech scored goals in the first half to extend their lead to 3-0 on aggregate.
Then Lucas Moura decided to snatch the game away from them. He scored a brilliant second-half hat-trick, which included a last-gasp winner in the 96th minute to knock Ajax out of the Champions League.
It was as unbelievable a performance as any and it was one of the most emotional nights in Europe's elite tournament in recent times.
#3 Serge Gnabry vs Tottenham Hotspur, 2019
L'Equipe was feeling extra generous in 2019. They handed out their third 10/10 rating of the year to Serge Gnabry as he dismantled Tottenham Hotspur in a 2018-19 Champions League group stage encounter.
He scored four goals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Bayern Munich ran riot in North London and won 7-2 on the night. All of Gnabry's goals came in the second half.
#2 Kylian Mbappe vs Kazakhstan, 2021
France took Kazakhstan to the cleaners as the two sides met in November 2021 in a World Cup Qualifier. Les Bleus recorded a 8-0 win over weaker opposition. It was a Kylian Mbappe show through-and-through. He scored four goals and also provided the assist for Karim Benzema's goal.
#1 Alban Lafont vs PSG, 2022
Alban Lafont turned in a phenomenal goalkeeping performance against PSG for Nantes just last week. He produced a string of wonderful saves which included a Neymar penalty as Nantes beat PSG 3-1 on the night.
