Gagné vs remporté

Question

In the sentence 'when France won the World Cup ' I used remporté instead of 'gagné' but it remporté wasn't given as an option. Is there a subtle difference in their respective meanings?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Pamela,
Thank you for your comment! Chris is correct!
Using "remporté" is perfectly acceptable in French in this context. Thanks to you, it has now been added as correct alternative.
Merci de votre excellente contribution !
Bonne journée !

Answer

Gagner is used to express "to win" in a general and otherwise neutral sense.Remporter -- also means to win, but it also carries the notion of "to take something back or home". It is used for major prizes and belongs to a higher register than gagner.