When Didier Deschamps took charge of the French national team, it was a time when Jose Mourinho was still managing Real Madrid for the first time. It might be more relevant to note that Sir Alex Ferguson was leading Manchester United, Sir Kenny Dalglish had just left Liverpool, and Tottenham were turning to Andre Villas-Boas. That was another era.
Deschamps has long been seen as a figure who transcends time, but now, after 14 years at the helm, he is stepping down. If France reaches the World Cup final or third-place match, he will have managed 188 games, just short of Joachim Low’s record for a European manager, which spans almost 15 years and 198 matches.
His immediate predecessor as a World Cup-winning coach could offer an interesting comparison. Low remained with Germany for too long, and if France struggles in the United States, there may be accusations that Deschamps has done the same. Especially since Zinedine Zidane, his former teammate and a triple Champions League winner, has seemingly been waiting for this moment.
Winning in New York on 19 July could make a case for calling Deschamps the greatest World Cup manager of all time. While he has been fortunate to work with exceptional talent, he has won one tournament and reached the final in another. It’s worth recalling that France’s last World Cup before he took over, in South Africa in 2010, was a disaster. There were more mutinies among the players than wins, with only one goal and an early exit.
After Laurent Blanc stepped down in 2012, it made sense to turn to Deschamps. He joined Franz Beckenbauer in a select group of managers who have won the World Cup both as a player and a coach. However, he has often received faint praise, partly because of the talented players he has had, and partly due to his pragmatic approach.
There is no such thing as “Deschampsball,” yet no other manager has seen his team score seven goals in World Cup finals.
The counterargument is that under Deschamps, France reached the semi-finals of Euro 2024 without scoring an open-play goal. They relied on two own goals, one penalty, and a successful penalty shootout. At times, they were less than the sum of their parts.
Yet, under Deschamps, the team has often used its players effectively. In the 2018 World Cup, for example, he brought in Olivier Giroud, who didn’t manage a shot on target, let alone a goal, but provided the perfect foil for Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann. His use of Blaise Matuidi on the left allowed Paul Pogba more freedom to attack while ensuring the team remained solid.
By 2022, with a midfield missing Pogba and N’Golo Kante, Deschamps adapted. He moved Griezmann deeper and showed forgiveness; Adrien Rabiot had refused to be on the standby list in 2018, but Deschamps did not hold it against him. There was a brutality in taking off Giroud and Ousmane Dembele in the first half of the final, but it facilitated France’s fightback.
Deschamps can seem unsentimental. Griezmann, his most consistent player, was overlooked for the captaincy after Hugo Lloris retired, with Mbappe chosen instead. The striker, like Pogba, has achieved greater success with France than he has at club level.
This may be Mbappe’s team now, but it also includes the reigning Ballon d’Or winner. Dembele has had a lesser impact in international football, with only seven goals, but represents one of four extraordinary attackers in Deschamps’ squad, alongside Mbappe, Desire Doue, and Michael Olise.
Part of the challenge for Deschamps will be finding the right balance around them. The profile of the French players means they are unlikely to top possession statistics, but few possess as much game-changing pace on the break.
It could be required. The French route is far from straightforward. Being grouped with Norway and Senegal makes theirs one of the tougher groups. Win it, and there is a potential last-16 tie with Germany. Come second, and they could face Brazil at that stage. A semi-final with Spain is possible, repeating the Euro 2024 encounter.
None of this makes it entirely easy. A feature of Deschamps’ teams, however, is that they tend to progress, sometimes at the expense of stronger teams. In six tournaments under him, they have only gone out 1-0 to the eventual winners Germany in 2014, 1-0 to Portugal in the 2016 final, lost on penalties in Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup final, and were narrowly defeated by Spain in Munich.
All of which means Deschamps tends to go further into tournaments than some more celebrated managers. During his tenure, others—Luis Enrique, Antonio Conte, Louis van Gaal—have had their taste of international football, and now it is the turn of others, such as Thomas Tuchel, Carlo Ancelotti, and Mauricio Pochettino.
Meanwhile, Deschamps has replaced Low as the great constant. He took over from the German as world champion, too. Their paths diverged there. Not since Beckenbauer had any manager reached consecutive World Cup finals. No coach has gone to three in a row. As France’s World Cup begins at the MetLife Stadium in New York, it is with the possibility that Deschamps’ final stand may come there, too.
