The career of the Rennes goalkeeper will have been particularly linked to that of a particular coach: Didier Deschamps.
On January 14, 2023, Steve Mandanda announced that he was ending his international career. Although he has often been used as an understudy for Hugo Lloris, the goalkeeper has a total of 35 caps with the France team.
“It (this decision) cannot leave me indifferent given Steve's endearing personality, our shared experience in the French team but also at Olympique de Marseille where he was, between 2010 and 2012, the captain of the “team that I led”, Didier Deschamps then reacted at the time, via a press release.
A substitute father
The current Stade Rennais goalkeeper returned to his special relationship with his former coach. “If we can say that Deschamps is my dad? Frankly, we can because I won all my titles with him. All. In Marseille, in the selection… We often clashed because he likes to be right and he is often right. But I will be grateful for life. He’s a coach who knows how to win, and then we were world champion in 2018”he confided during an interview broadcast on Téléfoot on Sunday.
When Steve Mandanda won the French championship with OM in 2010, Didier Deschamps was then the coach of the Marseille club. Eight years later, when he lifted the World Cup with the Blues, Didier Deschamps was the coach.
