Since the announcement by Didier Deschamps of his departure at the end of the next World Cup, Zinedine Zidane, who has remained without a club since the end of his adventure with Real Madrid, appears to be the overwhelming favorite to succeed his former partner in the France team.
However, according to Philippe Diallo, the president of the French Football Federation, nothing would be done. “ This is not at all false suspense, explained the leader of the 3F. It’s simply a respect for the team in place, Didier and his staff have been there for fourteen years now. I do not want to introduce elements that could disrupt the preparation of the France team. »
The boss of French football nevertheless confided that the name of the future coach of the France team could be announced at the end of winter, citing “two possible windows”: either at the end of the World Cup, “i.e. a window a little more anticipated and sufficiently far from the final phase of the World Cup” and more precisely to “the end of the first quarter of 2026, around March-April”.
Such an early announcement would be a real event. Because if Didier Deschamps is not the first French coach to announce his upcoming departure in advance, Philippe Diallo’s predecessors generally preferred to wait until their departure was effective to formalize the name of their successor.
This was the case in 1984 when Henri Michel succeeded Michel Hidalgo, in 1998 when Roger Lemerre took over from Aimé Jacquet or in 2004 when Raymond Domenech was appointed to replace Jacques Santini. In the history of the Blues, there is only one precedent: 2010. While it had been known for many months that Raymond Domenech would leave his position as coach at the end of the 2010 World Cup, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, then president of the FFF, wanted the question of the new coach of the Blues to be resolved before the South African World Cup.
However, the announcement of the arrival of Laurent Blanc at the head of the Blues was made by… the Girondins de Bordeaux. In a press release published the day after the last day of Ligue 1, the scapular club had indeed announced that the former defender had made it known “that he wished to respond favorably to the request of the FFF as coach of the French Team”, the Girondins adding “agree to hear the FFF on the question of compensation linked to the release of his coach” before scratching certain members of the Federation for having requested his technician in the middle of the season while he was under contract.
