2026 World Cup: Didier Deschamps’ amazing moment as France go out with a bang

Deschamps is one of three men to have won the World Cup as a player and coach – along with Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and West Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer.

Their aged coach is also a rarity these days – he led the national team for 14 years.

He has won 20 of his 26 World Cup games as France boss and lost just three times – including the loss to Spain in Texas.

As a player or coach, he was involved in more than half of France’s World Cup victories – and only twice.

Only three teams have reached the quarterfinals in at least four consecutive tournaments.

In the 2022 final, they lost to Argentina on penalties.They are very close to becoming only the third team to retain the World Cup.

A lot is expected from this team, with the tournament’s top scorer Kylian Mbappe, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele and Bayern Munich star Michael Olisse in front of a strong defense and midfield.

“For all the players at this World Cup, Didier had that extra motivation to give him the finish he wanted and deserved,” said former France striker and BBC pundit Olivier Giroud.

He had to go out through the big door. He didn’t exactly manage that but he’s still great for what he did at 14 years old.

“His record speaks for itself.”

“I think he’s like a second father to some players,” added Giroud, who won the 2018 World Cup under Deschamps.

“It wasn’t like that for me, but it gave me a lot of confidence and I tried to pay it forward on the field.

“It makes us so close and we’re forever connected because we won that World Cup.

“I always call him coach.

“When you’re in the national team, you don’t have much time to work on tactics and every manager has his own philosophy.

“To Didier, he was more like, ‘You’re big players, I’ll give you some freedom on the pitch’. He gave some instructions to keep the balance. So they always knew where each player was.”

“The biggest thing he taught us was his passion and his desire and his desire to be the absolute best and to win every game. His competitive mentality was very evident.”