Didier Deschamps is leaving his post as coach of the France team, the official announcement was made on the 1 p.m. news on TF1.
Didier Deschamps and the French football team, it’s almost over! The coach of the Blues officially announced on Wednesday January 8 his decision to leave his post in 2026. The announcement was made during the presentation of the 2025 edition of Operation Yellow Pieces scheduled for the 1 p.m. news. “It will stop there because it has to stop there at some point. In my head, it’s very clear. I served my time with the same desire, the same passion to maintain the team of France at the highest level,” he added. But 2026 is very good. “And why not beyond? “We never want it to stop when it’s a beautiful thing. Afterwards, you have to know how to say stop. There is life after. I don’t know what it will be but it will be very good too. It’s going to be 14 years, that’s a long time too. I’m not here for the records, especially for the demands.
His departure in 2026 will logically be in the summer after the next 2026 World Cup, a competition for which the France team has not yet qualified. It will not begin the qualifiers for the next World Cup until the summer of 2025 or next fall, depending on its progress in the Nations League.
The coach will therefore not leave for a new lease at the head of the Blues. If this deadline was rather expected by all observers, 14 years after the arrival of the former midfielder at the head of the Blues after Euro 2012 and the departure of Laurent Blanc, the timing of this announcement may surprise since it comes no less than 18 months before the next major football competition!
Deschamps and the Blues are, in addition to a formidable career as a player and captain punctuated by victory in the 1998 World Cup then the conquest of Euro 2000 as a finale, a quarter-final of the 2014 World Cup (lost to to Germany, 0-1), a Euro 2016 final (lost to Portugal, 0-1 after extra time) and two new World Cup finals, victorious in 2018 against Croatia (4-2) then synonymous with a memorable and painful defeat on penalties against Argentina at the end of 2022.
Controversies, executive retirements, internal criticism… Very difficult last months at the head of the Blues
This second World Cup epic confirmed the FFF in the choice to renew its contract and for a time removed the shadow of Zinédine Zidane, the natural contender for the position. But weakened in recent months, criticized half-heartedly even within the group, Didier Deschamps has had a complicated year 2024 at the head of the Blues. If his group once again reached the last four of a major competition, the Euro ended in the semi-final with a defeat against Spain, the game played but especially the group life of the Blues animated numerous debates . Tactical system, retirements of leaders, choice of the new captain, role and place of Kylian Mbappé… There was no shortage of discussions.
A first clap of thunder came at the start of the school year with the announcement of the international retirement of Antoine Griezmann, the former “darling” of Deschamps as he himself admitted. “Grizou”, downgraded over the matches and even relegated to the bench during the Euro, called it quits a few months after being overtaken by Kylian Mbappé to take over the captain’s armband abandoned by the newly retired Hugo Lloris. Coincidence, simple wear or real message to the coach? The doubts have not been resolved, far from it.
The Kylian Mbappé soap opera then animated the fall. Little in legs in September then withdrew due to injury for the October rally (during which he will be seen on the weekend in Stockholm), the captain of the Blues was then not recalled for the last deadline of the Blues in 2024, in League of Nations against Italy and Israel. Sanction, differences or conflict? The attacker revealed his truths in December in an interview with Clique on Canal+, a media outing undoubtedly followed closely by Deschamps. “It’s a decision of the coach, I stand behind what he said. We both discussed it. He doesn’t want it to be known and I totally respect it. He’s the boss. If one day , he wants to talk about it… In any case, I wanted to go, but I can’t say why.”
In mid-September, the newspaper L’Equipe also revealed tensions in the Blues locker room during the defeat in the Nations League in Italy in September, during Mbappé’s penultimate appearance in Blue. Targeted without being named by goalkeeper Mike Maignan visibly upset against certain attitudes, Kylian Mbappé would then have revealed to the group his doubts about the poor tactical work carried out in training for the Blues. A new stone in the garden of the staff and Didier Deschamps… So many reasons to whistle the end of the adventure in 2026? Didier Deschamps will inevitably face a number of questions in the weeks to come. The Blues’ next match is scheduled in just over two months, on March 20 and 23, 2025 in the quarter-final of the Nations League against Croatia.
2:35 p.m. – Lucas Hernandez’s tribute
This little message to thank you for these magnificent moments and the 2018 World Cup. We still have a little way to go together until 2026, launched Lucas Hernandez on the sidelines of Didier Deschamps’ intervention on TF1.
2:00 p.m. – “A wise decision” for Le Graët
Contacted by RMC, the former president of the FFF believes that the departure of Deschamps is a fairly wise decision. “It was a bit planned,” he confides. I extended him for four years after Qatar so that he could make a fourth World Cup, which he deserved because he won one (in 2018) and played in another final (2022). It seemed a wise decision. Is this the right time or not? I don’t know anything about it. It was more or less planned.”
1:15 p.m. – A former player pays tribute to him
I am quite surprised by Didier Deschamps’ announcement and the timing. Afterwards, he will have been at the head of the French team for 14 years, he has done very good things. We must not have a short memory, respect what he did, hoping that we win this 2026 World Cup so that he can have the exit he deserves” launched Rio Mavuba.
12:53 – TF1 was not aware
“We didn’t expect it, it wasn’t planned,” explained the journalist in the TF1 morning show. Speaking of the end of Emmanuel Macron’s mandate, I told Didier Deschamps that we found a little parallel between the two and I asked him if he wanted to continue. He begins his answer with: I am not here to make an announcement, I start again and then he says it, surprising everyone, me first. entourage asked him why say it now he said, “because she asked me.”
11:34 – Deshamps’ new explanations
“It seems like the right time for me. Because I was asked the question too, it wasn’t planned. It’s been very clear in my head for a long time, I just clarified it. But it’s not is not for tomorrow, there are still good deadlines. All good things have an end. It’s going to be 14 years, it’s okay! ‘be the most essential too with the results that you know” explained the coach from Bordeaux.
11:00 – The reaction of the Minister of Sports
Marie Barsacq paid tribute to “a great man of French sport”, with “an incredible track record, already as a player, but also as a coach”. Before continuing on the subject Zidane: “Everyone is thinking about it. We’ll see, we have good profiles in France, so we will surely have a very good coach.”
10:30 – Larqué is not necessarily banking on Zidane for the future
“There is never a good time to extend a coach or say that he is stopping. There are big debates, we have even seen coaches give up in the middle of a competition. Nobody can say if it is the right one or the wrong time. Which is certain, it will open discussions for the future It’s far too long. The future coach may be Zidane, I don’t know. I would almost bet that it won’t be. him” explained Jean-Michel Larqué on RMC after the announcement of the departure of Didier Deschamps.
09:44 – Zidane’s name is already circulating
Asked about the succession of Didier Deschamps, Philippe Diallo could not avoid the question about Zidane, even if he does not wish to enter into this debate. “I will not enter into this debate. Didier has two years of contract and, out of respect for him, his staff and the players, the question of his succession does not arise today. I want Didier to work in peace We have important deadlines,” he explained while paying tribute to Zinedine Zidane’s coaching career.
09:01 – One of the rare world champions as a player and coach
By winning the 2018 World Cup at the head of the Blues, Didier Deschamps joined the Brazilian Mario Zagallo and the German Frantz Beckenbauer as the only men to have won the most prestigious competition as a player and then as a coach.
08:44 – Philippe Diallo knew about it
The boss of the FFF was aware of the announcement of the departure of Didier Deschamps. For L’Equipe, he takes stock and pays tribute to him. “We discussed this just before the Christmas holidays. He told me his decision not to go beyond his current contract, in 2026. He told me of this intention and chose to announce it a time when we are still far from the first match, in March, so that there is no disturbance around the team. It is a personal, responsible and elegant decision, like the character. that he is (…) he may have felt that in 2026, he will have spent more than ten years at the head of the Blues, which is in itself quite exceptional, and that it was time to move on.
08:22 – America 2026 to come full circle? A funny wink from destiny
If Didier Deschamps manages to guide the Blues towards qualification for the 2026 World Cup, he will have an appointment in Canada, Mexico and the United States, host country of the competition. For this last deadline, Didier Deschamps should visit the USA which will host the vast majority of matches, 22 years after the 1994 World Cup. This meeting marks one of the biggest failures of Didier Deschamps’ playing career. Captain of the Blues, he participated in the November 1993 disaster against Bulgaria, synonymous with elimination following Kostadinov’s goal at the last minute and France’s non-participation in this “World Cup 94”.
08:04 – Deschamps: “It has to stop, I’ve done my time”
The LCI channel has already broadcast this Wednesday morning the extract where Didier Deschamps announces on the set of TF1 his decision to leave the French team after the 2026 World Cup. The complete sequence will be broadcast during the 13 Heures de TF1, where the coach of the Blues was expected as godfather of the Yellow Pieces operation in the company of Brigitte Macron.
07:31 – What results for Deschamps en Bleu?
In addition to the 1998 World Cups and the Euro 2000 won as a player, Didier Deschamps will have won the 2018 World Cup with the coach’s costume but also the 2021-2022 Nations League. He will also have reached the final of Euro 2016 and the final of the 2022 World Cup. He still has two possible competitions: the 2024-2025 Nations League and the 2026 World Cup.
06:55 – The curious Santini precedent
He was the last coach to have announced his departure even before the end of his contract and before an important deadline for the Blues. In 2004, a few weeks before the Euro in Portugal, Jacques Santini announced his departure. The coach, whose contract had not been extended by the FFF before the competition, took the lead and announced his signing for the English club Tottenham. The rest did not bring him luck since the French team, after a Homeric success in the pools against England, was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Greece.
