They were two centerpieces of the Blues, world champions in 1998 and then victorious at Euro 2000. Their international retirement after the continental coronation in the Netherlands left a huge void in the French team that Marcel Desailly, Patrick Vieira and others were unable to fill.

And if the two men, teammates in the French team for more than a decade, were never particularly close, they were able to develop a good understanding favored by success. This was shattered when the two men took on the role of coach and more precisely when Didier Deschamps succeeded Laurent Blanc on the bench of the France team.

There are coincidences that are difficult to explain

The former central defender considers that the native of Bayonne voluntarily left his position at Olympique de Marseille in order to make himself available for the France team.
“There are coincidences that are difficult to explain,
confided Laurent Blanc a few months after the end of his adventure at the head of the Blues at the end of Euro 2012. If he did say that he thought I was mad at him, it’s because he thinks I have reason to think so. He is better placed than me to know that. »

The quarrel was such that when Laurent Blanc took the reins of PSG a year later, Didier Deschamps preferred to speak with Jean-Louis Gasset, his assistant, to get news of the selected Parisian players.

“We won’t go on vacation together,” easily recognizes the former midfielder about the one who preceded him on the bench of the France team. “I never went on vacation with him, so in that respect, nothing changes,” the President retorted.