France’s 2018 World Cup-winning coach Didier Deschamps announced on Wednesday he will leave his post after the 2026 World Cup in North America.
“I have been there since 2012, it is planned that I will be there until 2026,” Deschamps told French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday.
“I have done my time, with the same desire, the same passion to keep the France team at the highest level, but 2026 is good,” he added.
Deschamps led the French team ‘Les Bleus’ to the 2018 World Cup title, becoming only the third man to win the football tournament as a player and a manager.
He took over from Laurent Blanc in 2012 and has taken France to three major finals in total, losing the Euro 2016 final to Portugal and the 2022 World Cup showpiece to Argentina.
Deschamps was captain when Les Bleus won their first World Cup on home soil in 1998.
The 56-year-old has already set the record for longest-serving official France coach.
European qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, gets under way later this year.
Zinedine Zidane, who won the 1998 World Cup as a player alongside Deschamps, has long been tipped as the favourite to eventually replace him in the dugout.
Now 52, Zidane has been lying in wait since ending his second spell as coach of Real Madrid in 2021. One of France’s greatest ever players, he won the Champions League three times with Madrid but has not managed any other club.
“Nobody is irreplaceable,” admitted Deschamps. “I have tried to be as indispensable as possible with the results that you know, but that is behind us now.”
Zidane’s shadow will continue to hang over the France team in the coming months, as they prepare for their next matches, beginning with a two-legged Nations League quarter-final in March against Croatia.
