The announcement will cause an earthquake across French Football. It will also not fail to be relayed and commented on outside our borders in view of the aura of the character. According to our information, Didier Deschamps will announce Wednesday in an interview on 1 p.m. on TF1 that he will stop playing for the French team in 2026, at the end of his contract. As soon as he was extended at the head of the Blues, which took place on January 7, 2023, everything was already very clear in his head.
Deschamps, unreachable on Tuesday evening, knew that, barring premature elimination at the recent German European Championship, he would go until the next World Cup but no further. Since then, he has never felt the desire to revise this position and extend his mandate beyond this date.
The boss of the double world champions, in office since July 2012 when he succeeded Laurent Blanc, is not overcome by any form of weariness. A competitor at heart, the man always remains combative and motivated. His determination to extract the quintessence of a group, agitated in recent months by upheavals linked to the international retirement of Antoine Griezmann and the repeated absences of Kylian Mbappé, remains intact.
He always had the latitude to decide his future
But the Basque technician, little spared from criticism since Euro 2024, most of which relate to the quality of play of a nation eliminated in the semi-final by Spain (2-1), simply judges that he will have done his time on the evening of his last match at the head of a team to which he has been viscerally attached since his “first life” as a player (103 caps).
“I have a contract until 2026, that is to say after the World Cup. Football gave me the freedom to choose what I want to do », he explained, moreover, in an interview given to the German newspaper Bild in June 2024. At each stage of his career as a club coach, Deschamps, who will also discuss on TF1 his role as godfather of the yellow coin operation, in the company of Brigitte Macron, president of the Fondation des Hôpitaux, has always had, in fact, the latitude to decide on its future.
Whether in Monaco, Turin or Marseille, he set the pace and chose, invariably, to put an end to the adventure when he felt he had covered the issue or no longer benefited from the conditions necessary for success. pursuit of its mission. A rare privilege, his hand was never forced or shown the door. He therefore does not deviate from his principles published in his line of conduct.
Diallo was warned before the holidays
When he was reinforced by the Comex of the FFF, on July 22, 2024, after the Euro, he never mentioned the post-2026 period with the members of the French football government. Philippe Diallo, the president of the body, with whom he has established a real relationship of trust over the months, was warned before the holidays during a discussion with Deschamps. It was agreed that the latter communicate on the subject sufficiently far from the double opposition against Croatia, in the quarter-final of the League of Nations, on March 20 and 23, so that everyone is focused on these meetings and the following.
If Deschamps chooses to make a decision eighteen months before the end of his contract, it is also, it must be borne in mind, to protect his group from the inevitable speculations about its future which would, inevitably, have escorted the not partners of Kylian Mbappé. By positioning himself clearly, he removes a layer of pressure from his shoulders certainly, but also from those of his players who would not have escaped recurring questions about the future of DD.
The architect of the successes and convincing results of the French team in major tournaments will now be able to concentrate on the very essence of his profession: the field. He will therefore have plenty of time to work, with his staff, to form the most competitive group possible to tackle the next objectives. Namely in chronological order the final phase of the League of Nations, then the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in June or September and finally, in the realistic hypothesis of qualification, on the final phase of a competition co-organized by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Obviously, the question of his successor will very quickly come to the forefront. And the name of Zinédine Zidane will then appear as a logical continuation. But that is another story.
