海角大神

When Nolwenn Legouic first played soccer 20 years ago as a young teenager, she had to brave her parents鈥� disapproval, play in boys鈥� cleats and uniforms, and put up with derisive taunts from her male neighbors.

But that was another era. Since then, she says 鈥渋t鈥檚 night and day, things have changed so much鈥� in France. The parents of girls she now coaches are delighted to see them play soccer, she says, and 鈥渟occer is becoming a game for everyone.鈥� Sales of women鈥檚 soccer gear at the sporting goods chain store where Ms. Legouic works have risen this year by 90%, she says.

Women鈥檚 soccer is exploding in France, with the number of players nearly tripling over the past eight years, commercial sponsors investing big money in the sport, and a French team dominating the European club scene.

The Women鈥檚 World Cup (WWC), currently underway in cities across France, has generated exceptional enthusiasm and drawn record numbers to stadiums and TV sets. 鈥淭his tournament looks like it is going to be a breakthrough event,鈥� says Matthieu Barberousse, the man in charge of World Cup coverage for the French sports daily L鈥橢quipe. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen anything like it.鈥�

This all reminds Brigitte Henriques 鈥� a former French international player and now vice president of the French Football Federation (FFF) 鈥� of the United States. 鈥淲hen I used to play in America it was like a dream, how much recognition the game had, how the players were stars,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淣ow that dream is coming true in France.鈥�

Peter Ford/海角大神

A player and coach, Nolwenn Legouic says there was no equipment on the market for women and girls when she first started playing the sport as a child. Sales of women鈥檚 soccer gear at the sporting goods chain store where she works have risen by 90% this year.

And elsewhere in Europe: Women鈥檚 club games have attracted record crowds this year in Italy and Spain. And in the U.K. Barclay鈥檚 Bank, which sponsors the men鈥檚 Premier League, recently announced it will also sponsor the Women鈥檚 Super League to the tune of a reported $13 million over the next three seasons.

But nowhere else in Europe has the women鈥檚 game grown so fast over the past few years as in France, where the number of players has shot up from 54,000 in 2011 to 140,000 today, according to the FFF.

A lot of that, say observers, is down to Noel Le Gra毛t.

In 2011, recently elected as FFF president after the national men鈥檚 team had disgraced itself at the World Cup, Mr. Le Gra毛t went to Germany for the Women鈥檚 World Cup. He was no fan of women鈥檚 soccer, but he found enthusiastic crowds in full stadiums watching entertaining games. What鈥檚 more, France made it as far as the semifinals, the national team鈥檚 best performance.

With Ms. Henriques newly elected as the FFF鈥檚 first female secretary-general, the federation set about revamping women鈥檚 soccer in France from bottom to top, encouraging schoolgirls to take up the sport and establishing a network of elite training centers for adult female players modeled on the federation鈥檚 existing system for men. The FFF doubled its budget for women鈥檚 soccer to $16 million a year.

A key part of Mr. Le Gra毛t鈥檚 vision was to host the 2019 Women鈥檚 World Cup, with all its attendant media attention and patriotic hoo-ha. 鈥淲inning the World Cup bid was the best thing that could have happened to us,鈥� says Ms. Henriques.

Francisco Seco/AP

Fans hold Swedish flags prior to the Women's World Cup soccer match between Canada and Sweden at Parc des Princes in Paris on June 24.

At L鈥橢quipe, editors had a hunch that this World Cup could be different, pushing women鈥檚 soccer into the big time. 鈥淚t is evident that we are living through a moment in society when people are looking at women鈥檚 issues with new eyes,鈥� says Mr. Barberousse. 鈥淭hat leads to a new balance.鈥�

L鈥橢quipe assigned 17 reporters to the WWC, only one less than it sent to Moscow last year for the men鈥檚 tournament. In 2015, when the last WWC was played in Canada, the magazine sent only two journalists.

The response from readers, who are overwhelmingly male, has surprised Mr. Barberousse. 鈥淭hree weeks ago they had nothing good to say about women鈥檚 soccer,鈥� he says. 鈥淲henever we wrote anything about it hardly anyone read the stories and all the comments were negative.

鈥淣ow we are getting a lot of positive feedback,鈥� he goes on. 鈥淎 lot of men have changed their attitude. They don鈥檛 talk about players on the French team as women; they talk about them as players.鈥�

Ms. Legouic says she has been surprised by the number of men and boys attending the WWC matches. And she is delighted. 鈥淲hen boys see women play football at this level,鈥� she says, 鈥渢hat means a 50-year jump forward in attitude change.鈥�

TF1, the most-watched French TV channel, has been surprised too. Almost as many people watched France play Brazil last Sunday as had watched the French men鈥檚 national team play an equivalent game in Moscow last year. (France鈥檚 next match will be Friday, when it faces off against the U.S. in what some are calling 鈥渢he final that should have been.鈥� France is one of seven European teams to make the quarterfinals, the first time that has ever happened.) The channel has upped its advertising rates for the French team鈥檚 matches twice and decided to screen both semifinals, even if France is not playing; it had previously relegated the games to a subsidiary channel.

鈥淎 cultural barrier has fallen and things are moving,鈥� says Ms. Henriques. 鈥淪occer is a game for both men and women now.鈥�