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Moments after being announced as France’s new coach on Tuesday, Zinedine Zidane clenched his fists and his normally measured voice quivered slightly.
“I’m excited,” he said. “The French team makes you dream. We have extraordinary players, an extraordinary team.”
Zidane coached Real Madrid until he left in 2021. He replaces Didier Deschamps at the helm of a French team he led to glory as arguably its greatest ever player.
“I’ve been waiting for five years for this chance, so that’s why I’m a little emotional,” Zidane said, adding that it was the happiest day of his coaching career.
“I’ve always seen this side as a fan and also as a future coach, I don’t want to hide it,” Zidane added. “That’s why I didn’t take a club side. I told myself that the only thing I wanted to do after Madrid was to take the French team.”
French Football Federation president Philippe Diallo announced Zidane’s appointment at FFF headquarters in Paris on Tuesday, saying he has been given a four-year contract.
Calling the hiring of Zidane “an unusual moment”, Diallo called Zidane “one of the legends of French football.”
The 54-year-old Zidane could have gone to another club after leaving Madrid in 2021. But there was no way he wanted to.
“I had some offers in the five years I was away to take charge of a club,” he said. “I turned them all down for the French team. That was all I wanted to do.”
Zidane called it “a huge pleasure” to take charge.
“I have so many emotions,” he said. “I’m up for the challenge.”
Zidane praised Deschamps, who won the 2018 World Cup and stepped down after the latest edition, where Les Bleus lost in the semi-finals to Spain.
“I will give everything for this team to win,” Zidane said. “I would also like to congratulate Didier [Deschamps] in these remarkable years.”
Diallo said he met Zidane for talks in February 2025 after Deschamps said he would step down after the 2026 World Cup. Zidane said France would play differently than it did under Deschamps.
“What motivates me is the game. I was No. 10. I like goals,” Zidane said. “I was a leader on the pitch and now I want to be a leader from experience.”
His first game is away to Turkey in the Nations League on September 25, followed by a game in Belgium three days later.
Home fans will have to wait until October 2 for a glimpse of Zidane at the Stade de France when France play Italy, 20 years after he was sent off against Italy in the 2006 World Cup final for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi.
“I have noted all the four upcoming games,” Zidane said, tapping his forehead. “Italy is special because I played there, because I know people, because I speak Italian. All those things.”
After the announcement, Zidane greeted a large gathering of fans outside the federation’s headquarters, who cheered loudly when he arrived.
From Deschamps to Zidane
Zinedine Zidane takes over a French club that reached the quarter-final round of the 2022 and 2026 World Cups. (Photo by LOU BENOIST/AFP via Getty Images)
France lost the World Cup final on penalties in 2022 and lost the European Championship final on home soil in 2016. Some Deschamps critics, among them former France teammate Christophe Dugarry, said he should have won more with the players he had.
Deschamps described “an unspiritual atmosphere” at the end of his tenure, without detailing what the tensions were.
Zidane and Deschamps were different types of midfielders but are forever linked by glory.
The industrious Deschamps captained France and the mercurial Zinedine was the creative force as France won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
Affectionately nicknamed “Zizou”, his face was beamed onto the Arc de Triomphe the night France celebrated their first World Cup triumph in ’98. An inspired Zidane scored two headers in the final in a 3-0 win against Brazil at the Stade de France, and later that year he won the Ballon d’Or.
Zizou’s Rise
Born in Marseille to Algerian parents, Zidane grew up playing in the estate of La Castellane, which has a huge mural of Zidane on one of its tower blocks. It was on the estate’s concrete pitches that Zidane cultivated his incredible balance to avoid falling on the rock-hard ground.
Zidane’s club career took him from Cannes to Bordeaux and then to two of the world’s biggest clubs: Italian giants Juventus and Madrid.
His international career began in 1994 when he scored two stunning goals against the Czech Republic after coming on as a substitute in front of his home fans in Bordeaux.
He won league titles with Juve and Madrid and scored a brilliant volley to help Madrid win the Champions League in 2002.
With Zidane nursing an injury, France flopped at the 2002 World Cup – going out in the group stage – but reached the final in 2006 after Zidane came out of international retirement.
His performance in a 1-0 win over Brazil in the quarter-finals was Zidane at his balletic best: a hypnotic combination of drag-backs, stepovers, spins on the ball and flicks over the shoulder.
The Brazilians were in awe and even Ronaldinho – a Ballon d’Or winner himself – seemed enthralled.
His 108th and final cap for France was against Italy in the final and he scored early with a deft Panenka style for his 31st and final international goal.
Then, with millions watching around the world, an infamous moment saw him walk back onto the pitch and slam his forehead into Materazzi’s chest, sending the tall defender back.
Zidane trudged past the golden World Cup trophy as he left the pitch in Berlin, his international career over.
Now he has another chance to lead Les Bleus to glory.
Report from the Associated Press.
