Didier Deschamps to step down as France coach after 2026 World Cup

Didier Deschamps announced in an interview with TF1 on Wednesday that he would step down as coach of the French national football team when his contract expires in the summer of 2026.

“I’ve been here since 2012,” said the 56-year-old manager in an excerpt released early. “I’m scheduled to stay until 2026, the next World Cup, but that’s where it will end because at some point you have to. In my head, it’s quite clear.”

The full interview will be broadcast at 1pm on 8 January.

“I did my time with the same desire, the same passion to keep the French team at the highest level,” he added. “You never want things to stop when something great happens, but you also have to know when to say ‘stop’.”

Deschamps began his role as Laurent Blanc’s successor and led Les Bleus to victory at the 2018 World Cup, also reaching the European Championship final in 2016 and 2022 and winning the Nations League in 2021.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, France reached the final and lost an epic match to Argentina.

“I’m not here for the records, but the requirements,” Deschamps noted. “The most important thing is that the French team remains at the top, as it has been for many years.”

Europe will send 16 teams to the first 48-team World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico in the summer of 2026.

Deschamps did not elaborate on his future after the World Cup.

“There is life afterwards, and if I don’t know what it will be made of, it will be very good too,” he said.