“The French team is the only thing I wanted to do.” Zinédine Zidane does not hide that by becoming the coach of the French team, he is fulfilling his dream. “It’s a continuity, in a way a dream,” declared the 54-year-old former playmaker of Les Bleus from the headquarters of the French Football Federation (FFF) after the official announcement of his appointment.
The official announcement of the appointment of the 1998 World Cup champion took place this Tuesday at the FFF headquarters. “Zinédine Zidane will be the coach of the French team for the next four years,” declared FFF President Philippe Diallo alongside the former playmaker.
Zinédine Zidane succeeds his former teammate Didier Deschamps, who had been coach since 2012 and whose tenure ended with a 4th place finish at the 2026 World Cup, following a title in 2018 and a final in 2022. Zidane had been without a job since 2021 and his second stint at Real Madrid. “I had offers over these four or five years to take over a club, and I refused them all for the French team,” he confided.
“As early as February 2025, I met with Zinedine Zidane. I made contact with him to offer him the mission of leading our French team,” emphasized Philippe Diallo. The number 10, who earned 108 caps for France, has only coached at Real Madrid, where he ended his playing career and which he managed twice (2016-2018 and 2019-2021).
A World Cup winner in 1998 and European champion in 2000, “Zizou” famously led the Merengues to a historic Champions League hat-trick (2016, 2017, 2018), an unprecedented feat for a coach. His arrival at the helm of the French team had been long-awaited, having been mentioned several times in recent years, notably in 2018 and 2022 before Deschamps was renewed.
The first gathering of Les Bleus under the Zidane era will take place in September, ahead of the Nations League, with an opening match in Turkey on September 25.
Captured & Published at: 2026-07-28 13:38:38 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
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