In 2012, Didier Deschamps took over as France’s national coach, leading Les Bleus to victory in the 2018 World Cup and to the runner-up spot in 2022. He will retire after the next major tournament.
The president of the French Football Association, Philippe Diallo, initially confirmed on Wednesday morning that Deschamps intended to resign after the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Deschamps himself will explain his decision in an interview at noon.
In a first excerpt of the interview, also published on Wednesday morning, the TV channel TF1 quotes him as saying: “I’m scheduled until 2026, but then it will end because it has to be the case at some point. In my mind, that’s very clear.”
FFF President Diallo had previously stated that Deschamps had informed him shortly before Christmas of his decision not to extend the contract, which runs until 2026. “He chose to announce it now because we are still a long way from the first game of the year,” Diallo said in L’Equipe. France will face Croatia in the Nations League quarter-finals in mid-March, and there should be “no unrest in the team” around these games.
World Champion 2018, Vice World Champion 2022
The 56-year-old succeeded Laurent Blanc as head coach of the Equipe Tricolore in 2012. After winning a World Cup title as a player, he achieved the same feat as a national coach in Russia in 2018. In 2021, he also led his team to victory in the Nations League, while in the 2016 European Championship (against Portugal) and the 2022 World Cup (against Argentina), France only lost in the final.
In total, he managed the French national team in 126 games, 81 of which they won. Recently, however, criticism of the coach and the team had increased, partly due to disappointing performances, especially in offense, at the 2024 European Championship – although they had made it to the semi-finals. Diallo now described Deschamps’ announcement of his departure in 2026 as “a personal, responsible and elegant decision that is in keeping with his character”. He paid tribute to Deschamps as “the greatest coach of the French national team”.
