The defeat in the World Cup final in Qatar has not eroded the credit of Didier Deschamps. Despite the fact that the French coach failed in his attempt to renew the title, his image as a winner remained intact and his extension at the helm of the team, announced this Saturday, only depended on his own will. Something worthy of merit if one takes into account that a man of the stature of Zinedine Zidane, who does not hide his intention to one day sit on the bench of the “bleus” after having won everything with Real Madrid.
Deschamps was the coach who placed the second star in the French jersey in 2018, 20 years after having been the captain of the team that had achieved the first. The challenge of adding the third crashed against the push of Leo Messi’s Argentina, but France did not detract in Qatar, where they became the first defending champions to reach the final since 1998.
It was about to – Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez’s leg prevented it in the last breath of extra time against Randal Kolo Muani – of being the first to renew the title since 1962.
Deschamps assumed the reconstruction of his selection
From the hand of Deschamps, born in Bayonne on October 15, 1968, France has become the reference in current football. In the last two decades he has reached six World Cup and Euro Cup finals, five of them with Deschamps on the pitch or on the bench.
Since taking over France, the Basque-French coach has managed to endow a generation of great footballers, led by kylian mbappe Y Antoine Griezmanof the winning gene that he had when at the end of the last century he reigned in world football at the hands of Zizou.
That good star, which threatened to go out after the elimination in the round of 16 of the last Eurocup, his biggest blur at the head of the “bleus”, regained its shine in Qatar, where France showed a high competitive level except in the first hour and a quarter of the end.
That is the hallmark of Deschamps, a coach who does not embrace styles or creeds, an adherent of pragmatism, without limits in terms of schemes or players, capable of punishing and forgiving with the greatest vehemence in the name of always the greatest interest, which is team.
With these credentials, the coach reached his fourteenth World Cup victory in Qatar, the same as the Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari. They have only been surpassed by the German Helmut Schon, who achieved 16 between 1964 and 1978. In addition, he has the best winning percentage of all the coaches who have directed at least ten World Cup duels.
Appointed to the position in July 2012, ahead of him he had the task of rebuilding a group that came with the open wounds of the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 Euro Cup, which ended with two resounding failures and many internal controversies.
Where Raymond Domenech and Laurent Blanc failed, Deschamps began to build a winning machine, the hallmark of his career, started as a professional at Nantes, exalted at Olympique de Marseille (1993 European champion) and Girondins de Bordeaux before reach their zenith at Juventus in Turin (European champion in 1996 and runner-up in 1997 and 1998), to end up at Chelsea and Valencia.
On the bench, he led Monaco to the Champions League final in 2004 before promoting the ousted Juve to the first division in 2007 and winning the club’s first league title in 18 years with Marseille in 2010. A successful tour that led him to the French team, where if he fulfills his new contract he will complete fourteen seasons.
His renewal depended more on him than on anything else, because France had given him a blank check in which his only demand was to set the World Cup in North America as his horizon. But the 2024 Euro Cup will be a tough test, because by then his main mentor, the FFF president, Noel Le Graet, will no longer be in office and because Mbappé’s generation will not be able to spend another two years without titles. . If he doesn’t top it with flying colors, Zidane’s name will come back with a bang and, yes, his credit will be damaged.
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