Zinedine Zidane has verbally agreed to become France's next head coach, taking over from Didier Deschamps after this summer's FIFA World Cup. ESPN reported the deal Monday, and while nothing is signed yet, a verbal agreement with the Fédération Française de Football is as close to official as these things get before the ink dries.
Deschamps has held the role since 2012 — thirteen years, a World Cup, a runners-up finish, a European Championship final. That's a tenure that deserves serious respect. But the question of who comes next has had one obvious answer for years. Nobody seriously thought Zidane's coaching career would end at Real Madrid.
The weight of the job
Zidane managed Madrid across two stints — 2016 to 2018, then 2019 to 2021 — winning three consecutive Champions League titles in the first spell. That's the résumé. As a player, the picture is even starker: 1998 Ballon d'Or, three-time FIFA World Player of the Year, a World Cup winners' medal in 1998 on home soil. He is, by almost any measure, the most iconic figure in French football history.
Which is exactly why this job carries so much pressure. The expectations won't just be high — they'll be existential. France have one of the deepest squads in world football. Anything short of a tournament win will be treated as failure, and Zidane will own that narrative the moment he takes the seat.
From a betting standpoint, France's World Cup and Nations League odds are already short. A settled managerial transition — rather than a messy search — keeps that ceiling intact. The real question is whether Zidane can get more out of a golden generation than Deschamps managed after 2018.
The headbutt still follows him everywhere
No Zidane profile is complete without the 2006 World Cup final. Leading France against Italy, minutes from what would have been a fairytale finish, he headbutted Marco Materazzi in the chest and walked off the pitch for the last time as a professional. France lost on penalties. That image — Zidane trudging past the trophy he never got to lift — has followed him for nearly two decades.
Now he'll try to win it as a manager instead. France's next World Cup cycle starts this summer.
