Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Deschamps led France to World Cup victory as a player in 1998 – and was the manager when they repeated the feat in 2018.
During his 14 years in charge, they reached one more World Cup final – losing on penalties to Argentina in 2022 – and lost to Portugal in the 2016 European Championship final.
A defeat to Spain would mean his last tournament as manager would end with a match against Argentina or England.
“He is leading this generation to become world champions,” Bartoli said. “They won in 2018, made the final in 2022 and now he really wants to go higher.
“Spain are going to be tough opponents. He knows that. We lost to them in the Euros, so he wants revenge, absolutely.”
Bartoli believes Deschamps has not received the praise he deserves due to high expectations in the French game.
“In France we have 67 million coaches trying to win the French team,” he said. “It’s not an easy job but he does it brilliantly.
“We’ve been so spoiled for incredible players over the years – like Thierry Henry, Zinedine Zidane, Eric Cantona – and we feel every time we have to win.
“For me, he doesn’t get the awards and the press he deserves based on extraordinary results, but this is France and he knows about it.”
Bartoli said the perfect end to Deschamps’ spell as French boss would be to lift the World Cup trophy on July 19.
Whatever happens, he hopes to have a future in the game.
“I’m sure, knowing him, he’ll go on another adventure,” she said. “I don’t know what club and where he will be.
“He’s probably going to take a year off, but he loves his football too much to walk away from it.
“He wants to go absolutely high and obviously winning would be the best. He’s a real winner.”
