The president of the French Football Federation (FFF), Philippe Diallo will present the new technical director of the France team on Tuesday, July 28, during a press conference at the organization’s headquarters.
The activity will take place at 11:00 a.m. (9:00 GMT), after an extraordinary meeting of the FFF Executive Committee scheduled for that same morning. The federation has not officially confirmed the identity of the new coach, although the main French sports media point to Zinedine Zidane as the main candidate to take over.
The announcement will put an end to the period of Didier Deschamps, who left office after the World Cup 2026, after 14 years at the head of the French team.
The former midfielder, world champion as a player in 1998, he directed his last game with the French team on July 18, during the World Cup held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.in which France finished in fourth place. In this way, he closed a cycle in which he won the 2018 World Cup in Russia and reached the final of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Deschamps, 57, led France in 185 games, a record for a national coach from that country, with a record of 120 wins, 35 draws and 30 losses. Under his direction, France played in three major tournament finals and participated in seven top-level international competitions, unprecedented numbers for a French national team coach.
During his management, France won 87% of the games in which they scored first and came back in 20 games in which they started at a disadvantage. In the World Cups, Deschamps accumulated 19 victories in 26 games, the best record among coaches with more than ten games coached in the competition.
The coach is also part of the small group of coaches who have won the World Cup as players and as coaches, along with the German Franz Beckenbauer and the Brazilian Mario Zagallo. Zidane’s eventual arrival would mark the return to the French team of one of the greatest figures in its history.
World champion as a player in 1998 and former captain of France, the former coach of Real Madrid, with whom he won three consecutive Champions League titles between 2016 and 2018, he has been identified for years as the main candidate to take over the national team bench after the departure of Deschamps.