Didier Deschamps will leave his post as coach of the French football team in 2026

FOOTBALL – He does not extend. The coach of the French football team Didier Deschamps will leave his post at the end of the 2026 World Cup, according to information from several media such as The Parisian et Le Figaro this Tuesday, January 7 in the evening. He should officially announce it on the TF1 set on Wednesday noon.

Didier Deschamps was appointed in 2012, after the departure of Laurent Blanc. The 56-year-old former world champion had extended his contract in January 2023, and it will end in 2026. He would have made the decision to leave several months ago, adds these same media.

This decision “is both responsible and elegant from a coach who will have marked the history of the France team. Didier wants, at the end of his current contract, to turn a page”reacted the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) Philippe Diallo in Le Figaro.

Who to replace Deschamps?

His 14 years at the head of the Blues are obviously marked by France’s victory at the World Cup in Russia in 2018, but also that in the Nations League in 2021 as well as the second places taken at Euro 2016 and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. His last months have, however, been criticized, in particular because of the lackluster play displayed by the French.

Before bowing out, there is no shortage of objectives for Deschamps. The Tricolores must play the quarter-finals of the Nations League against Croatia in March. If successful, they will play the « Final Four » of this competition in June before continuing with the qualifications for the next World Cup, the final challenge for the former captain of the Blues, world champion in 1998.

Then the question of his succession will obviously arise. The name of Zinédine Zidane is already on everyone’s lips. Asked about the subject by Le Figaro, Philippe Diallo swept away: “I do not want and I will not enter into this succession debate. » He has two years left to make his choice.