THERE MUST be times when the world's superstar footballers wonder whether they are playing against opponents or souvenir-hunters. When the French national team plays there are usually those in the opposing team with something on their mind other than securing a famous result. Some are eyeing up the chance to manoeuvre themselves close to one of the great names - Thierry Henry would do nicely - to be in pole position to swap shirts at the final whistle.

It is gratifying to know that Barry Ferguson cannot be included among this community of star-struck football tourists. Sunderland manager Roy Keane recently spoke with undisguised distaste about those senior players who ask celebrated opponents to swap shirts, sometimes getting their request in early before a match is even over. "You see players now who say I've got 50 jerseys in my garage'," said Keane.

"I think yeah, brilliant, but how many medals have you got?'"

There won't be a medal for Ferguson whatever happens when Scotland face France in the Parc des Princes on Wednesday but the satisfaction will be just as permanent if the captain can steal a positive result on his return after suspension.

Like Keane, Ferguson values no shirt higher than his own. Relatives have encouraged him to hoard the jerseys of illustrious players but Ferguson would rather amass a collection of his own tops from major occasions. "I like keeping them. Looking back in years to come I can say we beat France at Hampden and it was a great achievement, I've got the jersey I wore'."

There is a tendency for underdogs to go weak at the knees in the company of opponents as talented as the French. Certainly Scotland could be forgiven for an inferiority complex on French soil given that the last time they played there they were subjected to a whipping.

Berti Vogts's first game as manager, five-and-a-half years ago, brought the shame of a 5-0 defeat.

Few would be foolhardy enough to completely dismiss the prospect of another heavy reverse this week but that does seem unlikely given the transformation in Scotland under Walter Smith and now Alex McLeish.

In Ferguson the current manager has a captain who can be relied upon to remain nerveless in the cauldron of Paris Saint-Germain's stadium. "I'm not intimidated," he said, smiling broadly. "I'm from Hamilton."

It takes quite an effort not to be awestruck by Henry, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet, Franck Ribery, Nicolas Anelka, Claude Makelele and the rest of last year's beaten World Cup finalists, but Ferguson's huge respect for their abilities has its limit.

On the field he will regard them as peers, not superiors, and with Scott Brown, Darren Fletcher and James McFadden likely to be similarly unbowed, Scotland's disadvantages against the French should not include an absence of self-confidence.

"If you want to play at the highest level these players are the guys you want to play against," said Ferguson.

"Top quality players. But they're just names, you shouldn't bother about names. I don't. I guess most of our boys won't either. You're coming up against another guy on a park and I think sometimes you can respect a guy too much. I give them respect for what they've done in the game: great, fantastic. But once I cross that white line I don't care who he is."

By his own admission the pinnacle of Ferguson's international career so far was the Euro 2000 play-off victory over England at Wembley, but he can claim a victory over France too. On October 7 last year he contributed to the monumental 1-0 victory at Hampden which transformed the landscape of the Euro 2008 qualifying Group B, or at least gave Scotland a much nicer view.

Gary Caldwell's 67th minute winner stunned the prickly and forthright French coach, Raymond Domenech, to the point where he made a desperate criticism of Scotland's ball boys for taking too long to return the balls into play from the touchline.

Ferguson doubted whether many of France's aristocratic stars would know the names of the Scottish players who beat them in October and now intend to obstruct them again this week.

"They probably don't mention any of us. That's the arrogance about them, they probably don't know who we are. In the second half of that game at Hampden we showed them that we can be a good team. Complaining about the ball boys summed them up. That's laughable."

Smith was in charge at Hampden that day and set his team out in a 5-4-1 formation calculated to frustrate the French and rely on stealing a goal on the counter attack.

Ferguson remembered "running around like a headless chicken" for 90 minutes but something else lodged in his memory. "I remember the gaffer telling us that they would have the vast majority of possession but in the second half the game would settle down and we would be able to play a bit. That's the way it panned out."

Scotland will try to play the same game on Wednesday in the knowledge that even a draw would be a huge bonus. France laboured to win their most recent home qualifier in June. Against Georgia's disciplined defending they managed only a 1-0 victory in Auxerre through a goal from Marseille midfielder Samir Nasri.

Italy (3-1), the Faroes (5-0) and Ukraine (2-0) have also fallen on French soil in this qualifying group but McLeish took encouragement from Scotland's positive contribution during a similarly daunting fixture in Italy five months ago. Scotland were lively and prominent before going down 2-0.

"I have played in or been involved with Scottish teams in the past in these venues when we've never been over the half-way line," said McLeish. "The Italy game was very different. Obviously we want to contain the French flair players but at the same time do what we did in Italy: get forward and create chances. There is no denying the quality France have throughout their team. Pace, power, technical ability: it's all there."

McLeish made his name as a Francophile signing numerous French players, notably Franck Sauzee and Jean-Alain Boumsong, while he was the manager of Hibs and Rangers. Let's see what he comes back with this week.