After the World Cup final, Didier Deschamps left open whether he would like to continue as coach of the French national team.
Didier Deschamps has been France’s national coach since July 2012. Of his 140 games as coach of the Equipe Tricolore, he won 90 and drew 26. More importantly, the 54-year-old led Les Bleus to the 2018 World Cup title and four years later to the final again in Qatar.
His contract expires at the end of the year. Before the World Cup there was already speculation about the end of his tenure, Zinedine Zidane seemed to be in the starting blocks as his successor. But getting into the final had changed the mood: the French association is said to be hoping for an extension with Deschamps.
He himself left his future open after the bankruptcy in the final on Sunday. “Even if we had won, I wouldn’t have been able to answer that question tonight,” he said when asked if he would like to continue as national coach. A decision is likely to be made in the coming days or weeks. Both still seem possible at the moment: that Deschamps will lead France to the EM 2024 – or that he will end his career as national coach. Then Zidane is again the top favorite for the successor.
After the final, Deschamps also commented on the substitutions of Ousmane Dembélé and Olivier Giroud before the break. “They were tactical decisions,” he explained. “I wanted to make a change because I saw that we lack freshness and energy. I just saw that they weren’t at 100 per cent and there was also a small change of position by getting Kylian [Mbappé] off the wing because I saw that we were in big trouble,” he continued.
The final World Cup analysis: Tobias Escher on the epic final, the lessons of the World Cup and his top XI of the tournament.
This article was originally published on 90min.de as Deschamps comments: What’s next for France’s national coach? released.
