For Ouest-France, Noël Le Graët, former president of the French Football Federation, returned to his controversial remarks against Zinedine Zidane, whom many wanted to see as coach.
In December 2022, the France team qualifies without too much effort for the World Cup final in Qatar. Argentinians and French achieve one of the most spectacular finals in the history of the competition. The Blues finally lost after a failed penalty shootout. Following this defeat, frustration was expressed among many observers: Didier Deschamps had to be ousted to make way for new blood. The name of Zinedine Zidane then logically came out. But this situation did not necessarily please Noël Le Graët, the president of the French Football Federation at the time.
The latter reached an agreement with Didier Deschamps for an extension of his contract until 2026 and immediately exclaimed: “ Zidane, I don't care “. Almost two years after dismissing the idea of Zizou becoming a coach, Le Graët reconsiders his comments and completely changes his mind.
Noël Le Graët wants to see Zinedine Zidane at the head of the Blues
In an interview with Ouest-France, Noël Le Graët took the time to return to his comments which had caused controversy after the extension of Didier Deschamps. The latter apparently didn't care about the future of Zinedine Zidane. His ideas have changed a lot since then. “ I had just extended Didier Deschamps. In my opinion, 90% of leaders would have done the same thing. Many journalists were waiting for Zidane. The first journalist who calls me, I'm pretty much friendly. The second, a little less. Then the third one, I send it away », First explains the former boss of French football.
Before continuing. “ But it wasn't against Zidane, who I would like to see as coach one day. I was surprised that so-called specialists, who have never managed a club, played the Zidane card, probably because they were tired of writing about Didier and saying that he plays badly. Today, France is second in the FIFA rankings », concludes Le Graët. After a failed Euro 2024 and increasingly insipid collective performances, the debates on Deschamps' successor risk coming back to life.
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