PARIS – Zinedine Zidane will become France’s head coach on September 1, replacing Didier Deschamps whose 14-year tenure closed Saturday with a 6-4 defeat to England in the World Cup third-place playoff in Miami, the French sports daily L’Equipe reported, citing sources inside the French Football Federation. The FFF is expected to formally confirm the appointment before the end of July.
Zidane, 54, had previously declined the France role twice. According to Euronews, terms are now agreed and his long-time assistant David Bettoni has already begun preparation work ahead of the September start. Federation president Philippe Diallo confirmed an announcement will come before month’s end but had not yet named Zidane publicly as of Saturday.
The squad Zidane inherits finished fourth at the 2026 World Cup. France fell 2-0 to Spain in a Dallas semifinal before losing a 10-goal third-place match to England in Miami. Kylian Mbappe scored twice in that final game, pushing his career World Cup total to 22 and breaking Lionel Messi’s all-time record. That personal milestone came against the backdrop of a team defeat that illustrated how much France’s attacking threat under Deschamps depended on individual interventions rather than collective pressing structures.
Deschamps’s record stands on its own terms. In 185 matches leading France over 14 years, he won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, reached the 2022 final in Qatar, the Euro 2016 final, and the 2020-21 Nations League. No France manager has held the role longer. Critics consistently argued that his defensive, results-focused approach compressed the squad’s attacking capacity, and that France’s tournament exits repeatedly came without reaching their evident ceiling.
Zidane’s managerial record at Real Madrid between 2016 and 2018 offers a different template. He won three consecutive UEFA Champions League titles, a feat no coach had previously achieved in the competition’s modern format. He resigned voluntarily after the third title, citing the belief that a fresh voice was needed, then returned for a shortened second stint before departing in 2021. His appointment as France manager will mark his first role in international football.
His first match as France manager is expected to be an away Nations League fixture against Turkey, followed by a home match against Italy at the Stade de France on October 2. His first major tournament will be UEFA Euro 2028, co-hosted across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The France squad will not lack for talent: Mbappe, 27 at the tournament’s opening, will be entering the statistical peak of his career.
Zidane is the most celebrated French player in the country’s history, a 1998 World Cup winner who played in that tournament alongside Deschamps himself. His appointment carries symbolic weight extending beyond any immediate tactical question. In French football culture, where national team management intersects with the country’s relationship to its immigrant communities and its sporting identity, Zidane represents something beyond coaching credentials alone.
As Eastern Herald reported, the France-England third-place match produced the highest-scoring World Cup playoff since Hungary’s 10-1 win over El Salvador in 1982, with Saka’s hat-trick and Bellingham’s late goal completing England’s victory. Deschamps addressed his squad for the final time as France manager after the whistle in Miami.
Spain eliminated France in the Dallas semifinal with goals from Oyarzabal and Porro, confirming the structural gap between a France side built around individual excellence and a Spanish team with coordinated pressing across its full depth. Zidane inherits that deficit and a Nations League schedule that gives him limited preparation time before competitive results are required.
The squad Zidane inherits carries significant internal questions. Mbappe’s position following his transfer away from Paris Saint-Germain will require direct dialogue. The dynamics between the striker and the national setup under Deschamps were sometimes complex, and how Zidane, who first met Mbappe when the striker was 17, manages that relationship will be watched closely from his opening squad selection.
The Nations League squad Zidane names for October will deliver the earliest signal of his tactical priorities. Whether he continues with Deschamps’s 4-3-3 or introduces the more expansive system he used at Madrid during the three-title run will tell much about his international approach.
What L’Equipe’s report does not fully address is the composition of Zidane’s wider coaching staff beyond Bettoni. At Real Madrid, Zidane worked with a compact, loyal group whose communication style was built over years. International football’s compressed preparation windows, where managers have days rather than weeks with their squad before each fixture, will require adjustments to that model. Whether those adjustments come naturally or require structural changes to how the FFF runs its technical operation is a question September will begin to answer.
