France’s world champion coach Didier Deschamps has announced that he will step down from his position at the team after the 2026 World Cup.
France World champion coach Didier Deschamps will stop coaching the Equipe tricolore after the 2026 World Cup. The 56-year-old confirmed this in an interview with the TV channel TF1.
After the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, “it ends because it has to end at some point. In my head it’s quite clearr,” said Deschamps, whose contract expires after the tournament.
The former professional took over the French national team in 2012 as the successor to Laurent Blanc.
Deschamps – World Cup title as a player and coach
The greatest success under Deschamps was the 2018 World Cup title in Russia, through which he managed to become world champion as a player and coach in third place after Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer.
However, there was also criticism of Deschamps and the team around the 2024 European Championship in Germany. “I have also spent my time with the same desire and passion to keep the French team at the highest level, but 2026 is very good“said Deschamps, who as a player was world champion in France in 1998 and European champion two years later.
Deschamps says: “There is life afterward”
He has “his time“had.”You have to know how to say stop. There is an afterlife, I don’t know what it will be, but it will be very good too.”
In addition to the World Cup title, the former world coach also won the 2021 Nations League with France’s national team. The French under Deschamps lost the finals of the 2016 European Championship in their own country and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.