Zinedine Zidane Takes Over as France National Team Coach

Zinedine Zidane has come home.

The French Football Federation confirmed on Tuesday that the 54-year-old will take over as head coach of the national team, stepping into one of the most demanding and prestigious jobs in world football – and one he seemed destined to occupy.

His appointment arrives just two weeks after the end of Didier Deschamps’ long reign, which closed on a sour note with France’s wild 6-4 defeat to England and a fourth-place finish at the World Cup. That chaotic final game underlined a simple truth: an era had run its course.

Deschamps’ giant shadow

Deschamps leaves a legacy that towers over modern French football. Fourteen years in charge.

• 185 matches.
• 120 wins.

Those numbers tell only part of the story. He delivered the 2018 World Cup, the 2020-21 UEFA Nations League title, and led France to the Euro 2016 and 2022 World Cup finals. In a country that measures its football in generations – 1984, 1998, 2018 – Deschamps sits firmly in the pantheon.

Replacing him is not a routine succession. It is a handover between two icons who once shared the same midfield and the same destiny.

From 1998 partners to a passing of the torch

Zidane and Deschamps were teammates in the 1998 World Cup-winning side on home soil, a tournament that reshaped French football and French identity. Deschamps, the captain and on-field organiser. Zidane, the artist who decided the final with two headed goals and then claimed the Ballon d’Or that same year.

Their careers have been intertwined ever since, one embodying control and structure, the other imagination and brilliance. Now that relationship shifts from shared history to succession: Deschamps the builder, Zidane the inheritor.

A new reign, a familiar stage

Zidane’s tenure is expected to begin with an away UEFA Nations League fixture against Turkiye, a testing opening for a coach stepping into the international arena for the first time. After that, France will welcome Italy to the Stade de France on October 2 – a heavyweight fixture at a stadium that has framed some of Zidane’s greatest nights.

The former Real Madrid manager arrives with a reputation forged in club football at the very highest level, but international management is a different rhythm, a different pressure. Fewer matches, longer gaps, no transfer market to fix problems. Just selection, structure and the ability to command a dressing room filled with stars who grew up idolising him.

He will not be granted a long bedding-in period. France expect to compete for every trophy, every time.

Yet for a nation that watched Zidane grow from gifted midfielder to global icon, there is a sense of symmetry in this moment. The man who once carried France on his shoulders now carries its hopes from the touchline.

The question is no longer whether Zidane would one day coach Les Bleus. It is what kind of France he will create – and how far he can take them.