Photo: Getty Images For over 100 years, the France national football team has proudly worn a shirt adorned by the Gallic rooster. Since making its first appearance on the famous blue strips when ...

Why is there a rooster on France jersey? The shape adorning France's national team kits and the FFF's logo is the Gallic rooster: a symbol of their home country.

Why is there a rooster on France jersey? The shape adorning France's national team kits and the FFF's logo is the Gallic rooster: a symbol of their home country.

Photo: AFP Origins As you may know, le coq gaulois - the Gallic rooster - is France's unofficial national symbol, and the shirts of many French national sports teams have tiny cockerels sewn on them.

That's not to say the rooster hasn't encountered issues. Just a few weeks ago, Euro 16 organizers told football fan Clement Tomaszewski his cockerel Balthazar couldn't attend the upcoming tournament.

The Gallic Rooster is a globally recognized symbol of France. The association between the rooster and France comes from a pun: The Latin word "gallus" refers both to the ancestors of the French ...

The Gallic rooster, as embodied by Balthazar, has become an unofficial national symbol for France and a version can be seen on the jerseys of the French football team.

In the Middle Ages, the "Gallic Rooster" was used as a figure of hope and faith in religious circles. During the Renaissance period it then began being associated with France.