Zinedine Zidane has been appointed head coach of the France men’s national team, ESPN reports. The 54-year-old former Ballon d’Or winner starred for Les Bleus as a player, helping France win the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000, and collected multiple UEFA Champions League and LaLiga titles during his time as Real Madrid manager.
Zidane succeeds Didier Deschamps, who stepped down after a decade in charge, ESPN adds. France finished fourth at the 2026 World Cup, and preparations now shift toward September’s UEFA Nations League matches ahead of the start of the Euro 2028 qualification campaign next year.
Despite his elite résumé, Zidane has not held a coaching post since leaving Real Madrid in May 2021. ESPN says he spent the intervening years largely on the fringes of the top level and remains a guarded figure in the public eye. Analysts Alex Kirkland and Julien Laurens are cited by ESPN as providing context on his return to the international game.
At Real Madrid, Zidane achieved an unprecedented run of success in the modern era, winning three consecutive Champions League titles from 2016 to 2018, ESPN notes. His first spell began in January 2016, when he stepped up from the reserves amid a difficult start under Rafa Benítez. A 12-game winning streak helped Madrid finish just one point behind Barcelona in LaLiga that season, and the club beat Atlético Madrid on penalties in the Champions League final in Milan.
Madrid followed with a 2016–17 season that included victories over Bayern Munich and Atlético on the way to a 4-1 win against Juventus in the Cardiff final, and a LaLiga title that completed a historic double, ESPN reports. The team beat Liverpool 3-1 in Kyiv in 2018 to secure a third straight European crown. After a nine-month absence, Zidane returned to manage Madrid again, winning LaLiga in 2019–20 during the COVID-19 midseason break. The 2020–21 campaign ended trophyless, with a second-place LaLiga finish to Atlético and a Champions League semifinal exit to Chelsea, and Zidane left in May 2021, denying he was “tired of coaching” and criticizing internal leaks and a lack of support, according to ESPN.
How his methods will translate to the international stage is a question being widely discussed in France, ESPN reports, as Zidane prepares to take charge of Les Bleus.
