Didier Deschamps has announced on Wednesday that he is leaving France for Europe at the end of the 2026 World Cup, saying it was time to retire as Zinedine Zidane seems the heavy favourite to replace him.
The French soccer federation (FFF) said Tuesday it will not seek to renew Deschamps’ deal until 2026, and that the president of the FFF Philippe Diallo would wait to announce a successor. Deschamps is France’s longest-serving national team coach, but it was too soon to determine a replacement, according to the FFF president.
Les Bleus are a 2026 World Cup underdogs.
It’s finished, 2026. I have a pretty good idea in my head. I’ve done my fair share, with the same desire and the same passion to keep France up to the very top but 2026 is (a) very good (time to retire),’ Deschamps told TF1.
“You have to be able to tell yourself “don’t do this anymore there is a life after that. All that (means) is that France stays at the top as they’ve done for years”.
Deschamps, who took over from 1998 World Cup winner Laurent Blanc in 2012, coached France to the World Cup in 2018, two years after making the home final of the European Championship.
Deschamps had already won with every club he had managed before France, and the 2021 Nations League was won with Les Bleus.
The former France captain, one of only three men to ever be a winner of football’s biggest prize as both a player and coach, took the country again to the World Cup final in 2022, only to lose on penalties to Argentina in one of the tournament’s best matches.
Former France teammate Zidane — a double winner in the nation’s 3-0 win over Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final — has said time and again he’d like to coach Les Bleus after a stellar coaching career at Real Madrid, where he led the club to three consecutive Champions League titles in 2016-18.
“I don’t want to get into that argument (on Zidane). Didier is under two-year contracts and… for the love of Didier, for his team and for the players, it’s not up to me now to discuss his successor”, Diallo told French sport newspaper L’Equipe on Wednesday.