Follow the verdant path towards the Château de Clairefontaine and you are met by a three-metre replica of the World Cup trophy accompanied by two stars, representing France’s World Cup triumphs. Didier Deschamps had his hand in both of them, captaining his side to victory in 1998 before repeating the feat as manager in 2018.
The ‘98 World Cup final was France’s first ever but Les Bleus have now participated in four of the last seven end games, with Deschamps involved in three of them. In North America, he will have one final shot at reaching another. These are the expectations, moulded by past success. Deschamps has taken France to three major finals in his 14-year stint as manager. “We’re among the favourites,” he says as he sits down for the interview. “It isn’t a taboo word for me. If we have this status today, which seems logical and legitimate to me, it’s because of everything that we have done, the results we achieved.”
As we speak to Deschamps, his assistant, Guy Stéphan, pops his head through the door. “You’ve got the best,” he jokes. The France manager replies with a smile: “He is always very objective.” Deschamps’ record as a player and then as a manager makes Stéphan’s comment difficult to refute.
As always, however, there is a subjectivity. “Abroad there is perhaps more recognition,” says Deschamps. “I know very well, since I also travel a lot abroad, that the feeling abroad is different from the one in France.” The qualms from within the country concern the playing style. Before addressing the topic, he lets out a small chuckle: “It depends what you mean by ‘play style’. Internationally, that’s one thing, but then there’s France and God knows that, if the France team has been categorised as a [team with a] defensive, restrictive game, it didn’t prevent us from getting results.”
But Deschamps is not someone concerned about legacy. He insists that “it doesn’t matter” and nor does it interest him. He adds: “The most important thing is today and tomorrow, and tomorrow is the World Cup. After that, everyone will have their own … interpretation, their own feeling.”
Public opinion is one thing, but how he is perceived by colleagues is another. Gareth Southgate was a disciple while Deschamps reveals he has also exchanged messages with Thomas Tuchel – “a very good manager that I like a lot, too, and with whom I have the chance to talk a lot,” – Brazil’s Carlo Ancelotti, and the former Germany head coach Hansi Flick. Three major finals in 14 years and a Nations League title have made Deschamps the godfather of modern international football.
Yet he says there is not a secret formula to emulate. “I have a magic word: adaptation … I say to myself, ‘In relation to the person I have in front of me, I adapt.’ And so it leads to modifications … It’s not because we did this and it worked well that we shouldn’t change. It’s not about changing for the sake of changing either,” he says.
Beyond the tactical element there is the man management, where adaptation is also essential. “The generation from when I started in 2012 is not the same as today … the new generation need more exchanges,” says Deschamps, who has presided over a changing of the guard in the France dressing room.
Since the 2022 World Cup final defeat to Argentina, the likes of Hugo Lloris, Olivier Giroud, Raphaël Varane and Antoine Griezmann have all retired from international football. “The baton has been passed,” says Deschamps, who named Kylian Mbappé as the successor to France’s most-capped player of all time, Lloris.
“Kylian, today, who is our captain, before being captain, he listened, he looked, he doesn’t do things like Hugo. It’s not at all the same character and personality. He takes on this leadership outside, on the pitch as well, and he knows that when he speaks, he doesn’t speak in his own name, but he speaks in the name of all the players as well.” Deschamps also defended his use of the Real Madrid forward: “I must be stupid, and there must have been a lot of stupid people who he has had as coaches to put him in the middle of the attack within the teams he has played … for the past two years at Real and his last year at PSG … it’s been three years that he has played in a central position.”
Mbappé underwhelmed at Euro 2024. Breaking his nose in the opener against Austria certainly didn’t help while Deschamps also says that his preparation for the tournament was “suboptimal”, adding: “He arrived following his final six months with PSG, which were very, very difficult. He didn’t have much playing time.” Mbappé heads to this World Cup one goal shy of Giroud’s all-time scoring record for France (57) and that is a justification in itself for Deschamps, whose choices are always scrutinised, often criticised, but almost invariably the right ones.
For Mbappé to surpass Giroud’s record, Deschamps must find the right “balance”, a word he repeats eight times during our talk on a wet afternoon. “At the 2022 World Cup we already had four attackers [starting],” says Deschamps, countering an assertion that a switch from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 could leave Les Bleus’ famously resolute defence exposed.
He cites the role of Griezmann, placed within the midfield three at the 2022 World Cup as the fourth attacker in that system. His replacement in the team came in the form of Michael Olise. “He’s more of a discreet person, a little shy, but when he’s on the pitch, it’s wonderful,” eulogises Deschamps. “Today, he’s someone who is shining, and he is one of the best players at the World Cup.”
Deschamps has difficult decisions to make, particularly in the forward positions. Mbappé, Olise, Ousmane Dembélé, Rayan Cherki, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Marcus Thuram, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Maghnes Akliouche cannot all play.
“It’s about managing the frustration of those who won’t start the game,” says Deschamps. “It’s always hard to accept, because each player thinks he’s better than the one who plays in his place … ask any professional footballer at the very highest level, they will say: ‘Competition? Well, of course, it’s part of our life,’ but only when it concerns a teammate, when it concerns them it’s more difficult.”
As a result, and in line with comments made by Tuchel, newer to the international scene, Deschamps insists it isn’t about simply taking the best 26 players to the World Cup.
Deschamps, who will be 58 in October, already knows all of this. International management, he says, is a “totally different job” to managing at club level and none of his counterparts at the World Cup have the experience he has accrued.
“If I’m still here today, it’s because the French team has won a lot of games. Otherwise, it could have ended before, whether I decided it or it was decided for me,” he says. Ultimately, it is the former. As he confirmed in January 2025, Deschamps will depart upon the conclusion of Les Bleus’ campaign this summer.
This isn’t retirement, but the former Juventus, Monaco and Marseille manager isn’t thinking about what is coming next. “I won’t make any decision until after [the World Cup],” he says, but admits that there have been offers.
When asked about the possibility of a hiatus, Deschamps says he has “the freedom to choose”. That wasn’t the case the last time he took an extended period away from the game. “I stopped at Juventus in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009. I was on all the shortlists, practically. But my son told me: ‘The problem is that you always come up short.’” He doesn’t exactly need the World Cup to put himself in the shop window.
Deschamps doesn’t care about legacy, but as he departed the Château de Clairefontaine for the last time on Sunday, he has already ensured that he has left one behind.
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