French team: What future for the Blues after the Didier Deschamps era?

“It has to stop at some point.” Didier Deschamps justified his departure from the French team on Wednesday at the end of his contract in 2026, believing in an interview broadcast on TF1 to have “served his time”. A decision which opens the way for Zinédine Zidane, the overwhelming favorite to succeed him.

The coach, appointed to his position after Euro 2012 to replace Laurent Blanc, will therefore indeed return his apron after the 2026 World Cup organized in the United States, Canada and Mexico for which the Blues are not yet qualified. The news, confirmed to AFP on Tuesday by a source close to the Tricolores, became official after the broadcast by LCI of an extract from the interview carried out with Brigitte Macron as part of the “Yellow Pieces” operation.

“It will be 2026. I have been here since 2012, I am scheduled until 2026… the next World Cup. It will stop there, because it has to stop at some point. In my head it’s very clear. I did my time too, with the same desire, the same passion to maintain the French team at the highest level, but 2026 is very good,” declared the 56-year-old technician with record longevity to his position (160 matches).

Despite a certain wear and tear of power, the upheavals of recent months (Euro 2024 failed despite a place in the semi-finals, setbacks of captain Kylian Mbappé, international retirement of pillar Antoine Griezmann) and whatever the outcome of the 2026 World Cup, Deschamps will leave leaving behind an extraordinary record as coach with a world title in 2018 in Russia, the League of nations in 2021 and two finals (Euro 2016, World Cup-2022).

Deschamps, whose four-year extension just after the 2022 World Cup final lost to Argentina had caused a lot of talk at the time, had previously informed the president of the French Football Federation just before the holidays, as Philippe Diallo explained to L’Equipe.

“It’s a personal, responsible and elegant decision, like the character he is. He perhaps 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. indicated the manager.

Zinedine Zidane No. 1 contender

However, we will have to watch how the group will react to the future withdrawal of the coach while important deadlines await the Tricolores between now and the decisive date of 2026 with the quarter-finals of the League of Nations, on March 20 and 23 against Croatia, a possible “Final Four” in June before qualifying for the North American World Cup.

“This will free everyone, starting with him, because he has suffered very unfair criticism for years. He wants to protect the players. This will clarify the situation,” assured Philippe Diallo to L’Equipe.

With the scheduled end of the long Deschamps chapter, speculation will now be rife regarding the identity of his successor. One name inevitably and naturally comes to mind, that of Zinédine Zidane.

Icon of French football and sport, the former No. 10, aged 52, has never hidden the fact that he dreamed of the job. In reserve for the Republic since he finished his second stint at Real Madrid in 2021, the three-time winner of the Champions League on the Merengue bench (2016, 2017, 2018) logically acts as No. 1 contender.

“With the Blues, it’s not over. I want to, of course. I will be, I hope, one day. I want to come full circle with the French team,” the double scorer in the 98 World Cup final told L’Equipe in 2022.

Thierry Henry, crowned by his fine performance at the Paris Olympic Games (final), is another possible recourse among the former world (1998) and European (2000) champions. But despite his good image and his glorious past as a player, the ex-Arsenal legend will still have difficulty keeping up with the superstar “Zizou”.