The wait is over for Zinedine Zidane. The French Football Federation confirmed on Tuesday that the 54-year-old will take charge of Les Bleus, ending years of speculation about when, not if, he would eventually land the role widely seen as the one job he actually wanted.
His appointment fills the vacancy left by Didier Deschamps, whose 13-year tenure came to a close earlier this month following France’s fourth-place finish at the World Cup. Deschamps leaves behind a legacy defined by the 2018 World Cup title and a runner-up finish four years later, a record that made his departure feel like the end of an era for French football.
For Zidane, stepping into the national team setup carries a personal resonance beyond the job title itself. He and Deschamps were teammates on the France side that won the 1998 World Cup, and Zidane has spent the years since leaving Real Madrid in 2021 essentially holding himself in reserve for this exact opportunity, turning down club offers along the way in anticipation of a call that finally came.
“The France job was the only one I wanted,” Zidane said at his unveiling at the FFF’s Paris headquarters. “I’ve had offers over these four or five years to take charge of a club and I turned them all down for the French national team.”
In taking the reins, Zidane joins a short list of France’s most decorated former players to move into the dugout, following Laurent Blanc, who managed the national team between 2010 and 2012, and Deschamps himself. As a player, Zidane’s own résumé needs little introduction: a World Cup winner in 1998 and European champion in 2000, cementing his place among the era’s defining midfielders.
His managerial background, though limited to a single club, speaks for itself. Zidane’s only coaching post to date came at Real Madrid, where he delivered an unprecedented three consecutive Champions League titles between 2016 and 2018, a feat no manager had achieved in the competition’s modern history. That track record is now what the French federation is banking on as it hands its most storied playmaker the responsibility of steering the national team forward.
