Deschamps’ golden France era ends after another heartbreak

The end of coach Didier Deschamps’ Midas-like reign turned into a Tantalus torment as France suffered a comprehensive World Cup semi-final defeat by Spain, but Les Bleus’ recent heartbreaks will not tarnish an unprecedented legacy. France lost the 2022 World Cup final to Argentina and have now fallen to Spain in three straight major semi-finals, at Euro 2024, the Nations League and Tuesday’s 2-0 World Cup defeat. Yet Deschamps, who took charge in 2012 with French football still scarred by their mutiny and humiliation at the World Cup in South Africa two years earlier, will be remembered above all as the coach who led France to their second world title in 2018, two decades after captaining them to their first on home soil. With a record 20 World Cup victories as a coach, he took France to the global semi-finals at three straight tournaments, reaching the final twice, and established them as international football’s most consistent major-tournament force. Saturday’s third-place playoff will provide an anticlimactic farewell for the 57-year-old, who announced last year that he would leave when his contract expired after the tournament. His successor – former France teammate Zinedine Zidane has long been the favourite – will inherit a gifted squad but a familiar challenge: turning perhaps the deepest talent pool in the country’s history into the winning machine it should be. FRANCE RARELY FLAMBOYANT Deschamps’ teams were rarely associated with flamboyance. He was sometimes criticised for favouring balance, discipline and efficiency over spectacle, even when blessed with some of the most gifted attacking players in world football. But results repeatedly justified his methods. He took France to the 2014 World Cup quarter-finals, where they lost narrowly to eventual champions Germany, before guiding the hosts to the Euro 2016 final. Defeat by Portugal in extra time was painful but laid the foundations for becoming world champions in Russia two years later. France beat Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 final, making Deschamps the third man after Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer to win the World Cup as a player and coach. They added the Nations League title in 2021 and came within a penalty shootout of retaining the World Cup in Qatar, recovering from a dreadful opening 80 minutes to draw 3-3 with Argentina in one of the tournament’s greatest games. RESERVOIR OF CREDIT Those achievements gave Deschamps a reservoir of credit few coaches could match. He survived the fallout from France’s disappointing Euro 2020 campaign, recurring debates over his cautious football and the long, divisive exile of striker Karim Benzema. His authority remained intact because he kept building teams capable of going deep into tournaments. The former defensive midfielder had made a career out of winning long before taking charge of France. Born in Bayonne in 1968, he made his top-flight debut for Nantes as a teenager before joining Olympique de Marseille, with whom he won two league titles and captained the first French club to lift the Champions League in 1993. A move to Juventus followed in 1994. In Turin, Deschamps won three Serie A titles and another Champions League, establishing himself as the understated organiser at the heart of one of Europe’s dominant teams. Eric Cantona once dismissively described him as a “water carrier”, but the label came to capture the qualities that defined Deschamps: discipline, intelligence, selflessness and an instinctive understanding of what winning teams required. He won 103 caps and captained the side that lifted the World Cup at the Stade de France in 1998 before completing an historic double at Euro 2000. Success followed him into management. Deschamps took AS Monaco to the 2004 Champions League final, guided Juventus back into Serie A immediately after their demotion in the Calciopoli scandal and ended Marseille’s 18-year wait for a French league title in 2010. When he succeeded former France teammate Laurent Blanc in July 2012, the national side were still attempting to rebuild their reputation after the players’ strike at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. ORDER, BELIEF, SUCCESS Deschamps restored order first, belief second and success soon afterwards. His critics argued that France’s talent pool demanded more expansive football. His response was generally the same: tournaments were won through adaptability, defensive resilience and an acceptance that style mattered less than survival. For more than a decade, the argument was difficult to counter. The manner of Tuesday’s defeat will nevertheless sting. France arrived as favourites after their attacking firepower had carried them through the tournament, only to be outclassed technically, tactically and physically by Spain in Dallas. Deschamps admitted his team had needed to be at their maximum to compete and had fallen well short. France were unable to impose their strength, their celebrated attack was neutralised and their midfield was overwhelmed — a grim final chapter for a coach whose sides had usually found a way, even when playing poorly. “I do not want to throw away everything we have done,” Deschamps said after the defeat. “But in this match Spain showed they had something more.” It was a fittingly measured assessment from a man who rarely allowed triumph or disaster to alter his public demeanour. Deschamps will leave without the glorious farewell he had craved, but with a record that places him alongside the most influential figures in French sporting history. He lifted the World Cup as captain, hoisted it aloft again as coach and spent 14 years ensuring France were almost always present when the sport’s biggest prizes were decided. One painful night in Dallas cannot undo that.