Didier Deschamps will leave the French manager's job after the 2026 World Cup, ending a great era in the country's football history.
Deschamps took on the role in 2012 after Laurent Blanc resigned and led them to victory at the 2018 World Cup, also reaching the final in 2022 and at the 2016 European Championship.
The 56-year-old will leave before the 2026 World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico if they fail to qualify, and afterwards if they do.
“I'm not here to make an announcement, but it will be 2026.” I have been here since 2012, I am scheduled until 2026, the next World Cup. It will stop there, because it has to stop there at some point. In my head it is very clear,” he says in a fragment of an interview with TF1 and LCI, which was released in full on Wednesday afternoon.
'I have spent my time with the same desire, the same passion to keep the French team at the highest level.
“We never want it to end if it's a beautiful thing. Next we need to know how to say stop. There is life afterward. I don't know what it will be, but it will be very good too. It will take 14 years, that's a long time.
'I'm not here for the administration, and certainly not for the demands. The most important thing is that the French team remains at the top where it has been for years.'
According to ESPN, Zinedine Zidane is the big favorite to replace him. He was Deschamps' teammates during their 1998 World Cup victory and led Real Madrid to three consecutive Champions League titles as manager between 2016 and 2018. Zidane has been out of work since his second dugout stint in Madrid ended in 2021.
Despite being arguably their most successful manager ever, Deschamps is not universally loved by Les Bleus fans for his conservative playing style.
Nevertheless, his tournament success and 64.2 percent winning percentage place him in the pantheon of great international managers.
They have reached the semi-finals of four of the six major tournaments he has overseen and might have won the 2022 World Cup if not for Lionel Messi.
He is only the third man to win the World Cup as a player and as a manager, after Mario Zagallo, Pele's old teammate and manager for Brazil, and German Franz Beckenbauer.
L'Equipe reports that Deschamps made a decision a few months ago, with his contract expiring in 2026.
For a man with such a gilded trophy cabinet, Deschamps is a relatively understated figure and is rarely mentioned in the same breath as other top coaches.
He managed Monaco, Juventus and Marseille before taking up the French post and had success with all three.
One of his greatest achievements was leading Monaco to the 2003-04 Champions League final with a counter-attacking style, helping the likes of Patrice Evra and Emmanuel Adebayor make a name for themselves.
In 2006, he took charge of former side Juventus, who had been relegated to Serie B after the Calciopoli scandal, and led them back to the top in his only season in charge.
He then took charge of Marseille, one of his former clubs where he had won the Champions League as a player, and led them to the Ligue 1 championship in 2009/2010, the only time they have won it since 1995.
France has occasionally been linked to high-profile tournament spontaneous combustion, falling out of the group stages at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, but has at least reached the knockout stages in every competition.
Hugo Lloris captained the French national team under Deschamps and said of his boss: 'He obviously has enormous experience as a player and coach at international level.
'He is calm and collected and conveys that to the players.
'He is an inspiration to the players. We have a great player-coach relationship and it is no coincidence that he has been a coach for so long.”
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