The extension until 2026 of Didier Deschamps as coach of the France team, formalized this Saturday, blocks the tricolor horizon of Zinedine Zidane. While opening up the field of possibilities.
This is the meaning of the story. An evidence. Everything suggests that Zinedine Zidane will one day take control of the France team. His destiny must lead him to this post of coach, he the former conductor and hero of these Blues, crowned king of the world on July 12, 1998, an extraordinary champion who has become a renowned and feared coach with his three Ligue champions obtained in record time with Real Madrid. Zidane after Didier Deschamps to start a new cycle at the end of the World Cup in Qatar: many hoped for it. “As a fan of football and the France team, I want to see something else, another football. So I want to see Zizou coach of the France team”, still proclaimed his great friend. Christophe Dugarry recently on RMC. He must have welcomed the news without too much surprise but with a good dose of disappointment this Saturday, because the trend of the last few days has been confirmed. Deschamps himself formalized his extension until 2026 during the federal assembly of the FFF in Paris.
The future of the Blues will therefore continue to be written without Zidane, who had clearly recognized his ambition to become a coach during an interview given to The Team on the occasion of his 50th birthday last June. “I want to, of course, he said. I will be, I hope, one day. When? It does not depend on me. But I want to come full circle with the France team. I knew this French team as a player. And it’s the most beautiful thing that’s ever happened to me! But really! It’s the pinnacle. And so, as I experienced that and that today “today I’m a coach, the France team is firmly anchored in my head. After Deschamps? I don’t know. If it has to be done, it will be done, then or not. When I say that I I want to take the France team one day, I assume it. Today, a team is in place. With its objectives. But if the opportunity arises then, then I will be there. Once again, that does not depend on me. My deep desire is there.” He knows it today, he will still have to wait, contain this desire. By saying yes to other projects while waiting for the door to finally open in a few years? Without being in a hurry, Zidane did not lose the fiber and the desire to win trophies.
After PSG, Brazil would be interested
Last summer, as reported by RMC Sport, he had exchanged with the leaders of PSG, in search of a successor to Mauricio Pochettino. The two parties had negotiated and discussed the feasibility of such an association. But the former number 10 had decided to wait for the Blues, in the hope that the train of the France team would appear in the near future. Without having any guarantee from Noël Le Graët. And bearing in mind that a new long-term contract for “DD” would block his tricolor horizon. This is the scenario that ended up happening. So what next for Zidane? Should we expect a new Parisian approach when Christophe Galtier is currently under contract until 2024? His name also comes up often at Juve, where his style and character were admired during his years as a player from 1996 to 2001. “Italy is in my heart, I spent five years in Turin and Juventus is still important to me. We will see”, he confided in April 2021. Will he be contacted next summer to replace Massimiliano Allegri? Nothing is less sure. Criticized since his return to Piedmont, the Italian has been gradually regaining credit for a few weeks.
His Juve took the door in the first round of the Champions League this season, but they relaunched themselves in the title race on the national scene by chaining seven victories. Some also dream of seeing Zizou return home to Madrid. Leaving in full glory in 2018, five days after a third success in C1, he was quick to regain the heights when he returned nine months later, in the role of savior, by winning a second championship title. Spain, in 2019-2020. But he had ended up exhausted, tested by the demanding merengue context. Could he dive back into an environment he has already fled twice? And then Carlo Ancelotti’s contract will only end in 2024 and he is not expected to leave his post before. No matter, Zidane will not miss requests. Brazil has already expressed interest, according to The Team. Because he is a free, foreign and experienced coach, he ticks all the boxes of the profile drawn up to take over from Tite, dismissed after the elimination of the Seleção in the quarter-finals of the last World Cup. Zidane has supporters and not just within the Brazilian FA.
“Football is a democratic sport. Everyone can participate, even if the priority will always be a coach from your country, who knows local football. But if today you don’t have a name that is unanimous in Brazil, why not look outside? (…) I see Zidane as the perfect coach of Brazil”, underlined Friday the former midfielder and sporting director of OL, Juninho, in the program “Rothen ignites” on RMC. It would be a great challenge for Zidane, and a lot of pressure, too, when Brazil have not had a foreign coach since the Argentinian Filpo Nuñez in 1965. Whether in South America or elsewhere, his return on a bench seems in any case close. This is what he hinted in October on the sidelines of the presentation of his new wax statue at the Grévin museum. “Do I miss the coach’s suit? No, I’m not far away, he first slipped in front of the media. We wait, we wait a little bit.” And when asked for a date, Zizou replied with a small smile on the corner of his lips: “Soon, soon. But hey, we’re enjoying it.”