World champion coach Didier Deschamps is ending his involvement with the French national team after the 2026 World Cup. The 56-year-old announced this in an interview with broadcaster LCI. His role in the national team will then stop because it has to stop at some point. “I have served my time,” said Deschamps, who has held the position since 2012. You never feel like stopping when you’re doing something beautiful, but you also have to be able to say stop. He doesn’t yet know what will happen next.
Under Deschamps’ leadership, France won the World Cup in 2018 and finished second in the 2022 World Cup. He also reached the final with the Équipe Tricolore at the home European Championships in 2016. The president of the French Federation (FFF), Philippe Diallo, praised him as “the greatest coach of the French national team”. In the sports magazine L’Equipe He said: “I think that Didier Deschamps’ career is exceptional, marked by the most prestigious titles.” He does not believe that the announcement will affect Deschamps’ authority in the remaining time. “On the contrary, this will liberate everyone,” Diallo said.
At the same time, after Deschamps’ announcement, speculation began about a possible engagement of Zinédine Zidane as his successor. L’Equipe described the 52-year-old as the “obvious choice” for the post. “All eyes,” the newspaper headlined Le Monde In addition, they now focused on Zidane.
The 1998 World Cup winner has been without a coaching job for more than three years, after leading Real Madrid to three Champions League titles, among other things, and having been repeatedly linked with the position as French national coach in the past. “Of course we all hope that he will be after 2026. It’s his decision,” said former professional Christophe Dugarry, who won the World Cup title in his own country at Zidane’s side in 1998, at RMC Sport: “I hope from the bottom of my heart that this will happen one day.” Association boss Diallo said, the question does not yet arise. An alternative to Zidane could be Thierry Henry, who led the French U21s to Olympic silver in the summer.
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