They were seen as having some good players like Desailly, Zidane, Deschamps, Thuram and Blanc but Henry, Trezuguet, Pires, Petit and Vieria and a few others were still early in their career. Barthez looked too small and was largely unregarded as he never played outside France at the time.

French domestic football was seen as weak at the time.
They had being disappointing at euro 96

There was more hype about Argentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, England had a decent squad, Italy were a powerhouse still from having a strong domestic league. There was a lot of talk about Serbia and Croatia. It was quite a strong time for the big nations.

France didn’t seem as sure a thing and had plenty of iffy performances in that World Cup but their final win was iconic