Fans of successful French sportsmen working in unison will be thrilled to learn that 1998 World Cup winner Fabien Barthez has launched a new racing team with 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner Olivier Panis.Imaginatively tiled Panis-Barthez Competition, the team will compete in the LMP2 class of the European Le Mans Series next year. They will also apply for an entry to the Le Mans 24 Hours, although the race's traditional French bureaucracy means they will have to wait several months to find out if they've been successful.Daily Sportscar reports that Barthez will be one of the car's crew of drivers, but motorsport veteran Panis will not. This might seem like a baffling decision, with Panis having 157 F1 grands prix, that famous Monaco win, and four starts at Le Mans to his name; Barthez, meanwhile, is an eccentric former goalkeeper.But the ex-Manchester United shot-stopper is also a keen semi-pro racing driver, having taken up the sport following his retirement from football in 2007 (which came after he fought with a fan in a Nantes car park). He made his first appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours last year, driving a Ferrari 458 in the GT Am category, and has also won the French GT title.The LMP2 class requires each car to field one 'amateur' driver (by relative standards to the professionals) which, in this case, will be Barthez. As such it all makes sense; the actor Patrick Dempsey performs a similar driver/investor role at the Dempsey-Proton Racing GT squad, who this year finished second in-class at Le Mans.As for Panis, he's pushing 50 and probably doesn't fancy the stress of competing in international motorsport any more. Which is fair enough, really. A younger pro driver is likely to be hired to team up with Barthez; no word on whether they'll kiss his shiny bald head for luck before races, however…