As during the last World Cups, French football will not only be represented by its national team at World Cup 26 in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Many players born in France and from training centers in France will be engaged with another selection. Among the former Bleuets who we will probably find next summer in other colors, we can cite Alban Lafont, Aymeric Laporte, Houssem Aouar, Sofiane Diop, Amine Gouiri or Sébastien Haller.
France will also be the country most represented in terms of number of coaches. Of course, Didier Deschamps, Rudi Garcia and Hervé Renard qualified for the World Cup at the helm of France, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. It would be dishonest to forget the dual nationals Walid Regragui and Emerse Faé. The coach of Morocco is a true representative of Ile-de-France football (he was spotted by Rudi Garcia in Corbeil-Essonnes), while the coach of the Ivory Coast was born in Nantes and trained with the Canaries (he was a French Espoir before playing with the Elephants).
Another French technician celebrated a historic qualification Tuesday evening: Sébastien Migné at the head of Haiti! This former assistant to Claude Le Roy with several African selections is in charge of the Grenadiers, who snatched first place in their group in the Concacaf zone qualifiers, beating Nicaragua (2-0).
Two French coaches in the play-offs
Finally, two French coaches have the opportunity to join this large casting via the intercontinental play-offs in March 2026. The draw for the two tables is scheduled for this Thursday at 1 p.m. (as for the European play-offs). Sébastien Desabre’s DRC is one of the top two seeds and will only have to win one match to compete in the World Cup. He also traveled in Africa and has led the Leopards since 2022.
The completely crazy story would come from the qualification of New Caledonia, which will face Bolivia, Jamaica or Suriname in the semi-finals of these play-offs. A certain Johann Sidaner, 48, has been the Cagous coach for three years, after having been responsible for the pre-training of FC Nantes. This French territory has a national team with Fifa because it has a quasi-independent government.
