One month before his first list as coach of the France team, Zinédine Zidane has officially formed his staff, as revealed by the FFF. “Zizou” will take up his duties at Clairefontaine on September 21 and the Blues will play four Nations League matches during this brand new two-week international window (against Turkey, Belgium twice and Italy). No less than 22 people will work around “Zizou” on a daily basis.
Unsurprisingly, Zidane has enlisted the services of the collaborators he had at Real Madrid: David Bettoni is his faithful assistant, Hamidou Msaidie will be the second assistant coach, Grégory Dupont the head of physical preparation and Stéphane Plancque the observer of the opposing teams. Fabien Barthez is officially named goalkeeping coach, while he is currently completing his coaching diploma. His time at TFC in 2020-2021 clearly demonstrates his motivation at the idea of occupying this role in a staff.
More reinforcement for Zidane
Besides Barthez, another 98 world champion was announced in Zidane’s staff in recent weeks, namely Bernard Diomède, but the U20 coach (after having been in charge of the U17, U18 and U19) does not appear in the Blues staff unveiled on Thursday. Diomède is already employed by the federation and, as indicated The Teamhe could still complete the “Zizou” staff. Logically, the former AJ Auxerre left winger could advise his former number 10 on the young players he had under his command.
The staff of the new coach of the France team is particularly extensive and will be even more so with Bernard Diomède, as well as data analysts who will be employed depending on events. The press chief (the coach’s main press secretary) has not yet been announced and a woman could take over this vacant position after the end of Didier Deschamps’ reign.
Zinédine Zidane with Laurent Blanc, Fabien Barthez and Bernard Diomède.
