France will have a new face on the touchline for the first time in 14 years when Zinedine Zidane takes charge of Les Bleus against Turkey. Zidane replaced Didier Deschamps after France’s fourth-place finish at the 2026 World Cup, and the fixture opens an international break of four Nations League games over three weeks that also includes two meetings with Belgium and one against Italy in Paris.
The appointment had been an open secret long before France’s third-place play-off defeat to England. Talks between Zidane and the French football authorities began as early as February 2025, a few weeks after his former team-mate Deschamps announced he would step down following the 2026 World Cup.
Unveiled in Paris, Zidane was keen to highlight the time he had spent waiting on the sidelines. “I had several offers in the last four or five years, but I turned them all down,” an emotional Zidane said. “The national team is the only thing I wanted.”
Enthusiasm at taking the job was the overarching theme of that first news conference, but the midfield legend offered few clues as to how he would approach the role. Even a question about Kylian Mbappe’s captaincy was bypassed. “The most important thing for him now is to rest, we’ll have the chance to speak in September,” Zidane said. Mbappe, speaking to Spanish newspaper AS, has since said having the former Real Madrid star as his national team coach was “like a film”.
Asked about his preferred style of play, Zidane declined to go into tactical detail. “I can’t explain to you in just a couple of words how we’re going win,” he said. “I have to arrive, meet with the players, and explain my plans to them. After that, it’ll be up to me to keep this team winning.” He did confirm an intention “to do things differently” and has called up five uncapped players for this international break, while signalling a degree of “continuation” from the work of his predecessor, whom he made sure to praise. “I’m going to try do what I know how to, but it won’t be a complete break either,” he said.
Zidane retired as a player in 2006, one of the most exciting attacking midfielders of his generation. He won league titles and European trophies with Juventus and Real Madrid, and helped France to victory at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. He started his career at Cannes before moving to Bordeaux, and almost joined Premier League side Blackburn Rovers in 1995 – only for the move to break down, with Rovers owner Jack Walker reportedly asking manager Kenny Dalglish: “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”
Instead he moved to Juventus, winning six trophies, before Real Madrid signed him for what was then a record 45.8m pounds. For France he was the hero of the home 1998 World Cup, scoring twice in the 3-0 final win over Brazil, and was named the best player at Euro 2000. His playing career ended after the 2006 World Cup, a campaign that took France to the final but closed with his sending off in the showpiece match for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi.
As a manager, Zidane and Deschamps – two 1998 World Cup winners – share similar traits, not least their pragmatism and a laissez-faire approach to attacking phases that Deschamps embraced at the recent World Cup. Given the attacking talent at his disposal, it stands to reason Zidane would carry on in that vein. “I was a number 10 as a player,” he said, hinting he would retain the role Michael Olise thrived in for much of the summer. “What motivates me is the game, it’s scoring goals,” he added. France netted 20 times in North America, and Deschamps has arguably laid the foundations for his successor’s attacking set-up.
Zidane finds Les Bleus in immeasurably better shape than his predecessor did at the start of his own tenure, when the wounds of the 2010 World Cup fiasco were still fresh. The appointment still comes with a degree of uncertainty: Zidane has spent five years out of management, and the Real Madrid job is the only other senior coaching role of his career. The 54-year-old has acknowledged that leading a national team would be an entirely new proposition. “It’s new to me, but I’m not scared,” he said. “This is what I wanted.”
The reaction among players and fans has been almost unanimously positive. Zidane was met by a crowd of supporters carrying flares and banners as he left the French Football Federation’s headquarters after his unveiling, and Mbappe wrote “Welcome home” on Instagram later in the day. “It’s a great day for French football,” his former France and Bordeaux team-mate Bixente Lizarazu told France Info. “He is more than fit to manage Les Bleus, given what he did at Real Madrid with great players and big egos.”
The respect the former Ballon d’Or winner commands in a dressing room is one of his key strengths. Even more so than Deschamps, a France legend in his own right, Zidane is a figure who can rival – perhaps even overshadow – his own players in terms of star power, which may make him the ideal manager to get the most out of an attack built around Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Olise. His homecoming at the Stade de France against Italy offers an ideal fixture to begin the new era – and given his iconic status within French football, Zidane will invariably enjoy an unprecedented degree of goodwill regardless of his initial results. Whether he uses that leeway to experiment tactically and bring in new faces remains to be seen.