{"id":35398,"date":"2026-06-14T15:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T15:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/35398\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T15:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T15:56:25","slug":"didier-deschamps-last-dance-with-france-and-the-impact-it-could-have-on-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/35398\/","title":{"rendered":"Didier Deschamps\u2019 last dance with France and the impact it could have on Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Didier Deschamps will leave the France job after the 2026 World Cup, as confirmed in January 2025, and he now faces a chance to write one final chapter into the history books, whether it would be redemption or retreat, a third final or an early flight home from the United States.<\/p>\n

The answer to what comes next is no secret either. Zinedine Zidane is reported to have a verbal agreement with the French Football Federation to take over once Deschamps steps down, ending a five-year wait since leaving Real Madrid in 2021. The former midfielder turned down several job offers in the intervening period, including approaches from Manchester United, holding out specifically for the France role. The succession casts a long shadow over everything France do this summer, even if Deschamps himself has steadfastly refused to be drawn into it.<\/p>\n

The Zidane angle is not incidental for a Madrid audience. He won two La Liga titles and three consecutive Champions League trophies at the Bernab\u00e9u across two spells, and his relationships with several players in this France squad run deep. Mbapp\u00e9 has spoken publicly about not wanting Deschamps to end up managing another national team, \u201cDidier is French, he is ours,\u201d he told reporters recently, but the arrival of Zidane as successor, a man the Real Madrid players know and respect, could shift the international dynamic in ways that benefit the club. A Zidane-led France would almost certainly mean a more prominent role for whichever Madrid players have impressed him here.<\/p>\n

Speaking to MARCA<\/a> ahead of the tournament, Deschamps was asked about his future. \u201cWhat is most important is today and tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cTomorrow is the World Cup. I have always considered myself to be at the service of the French national team.\u201d When pressed on the prospect of a club job afterwards, the answer was equally firm: not interested, not yet, not while there is still a tournament to win.<\/p>\n

The man has earned the right to that kind of focus. He led France to the World Cup title in Russia in 2018 and to the final again in Qatar in 2022, losing to Argentina on penalties in what many regard as the best World Cup final ever played. \ufffc He was appointed on 9 July 2012. \ufffc The tenure reaches 14 years this summer. No other manager at this tournament has been in charge longer.<\/p>\n

France are in Group I. They open against Senegal at MetLife Stadium on June 16, face Iraq in Philadelphia on June 22, and close against Norway in Boston on June 26. Norway arrive with Erling Haaland, Martin Odegaard, and Alexander S\u00f8rloth as their headline names, their biggest challenge of the group stage, even if many French fans may still have nightmares about the threat posed by Senegal after their 2002 humiliation.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9: the record, the fitness, the noise<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 leads the squad with 96 international caps and arrives on the cusp of two records that would define his legacy with Les Bleus. He has 56 goals in 95 appearances for France, one behind Olivier Giroud\u2019s all-time record of 57 in 137 caps. He is also, at 27, on his third World Cup and one goal away from erasing the name of Just Fontaine from the record book for France\u2019s all-time World Cup scorer. With 12 World Cup goals already, he is in touching distance of Miroslav Klose\u2019s all-time record of 16.<\/p>\n

The fitness picture coming in was complicated. Real Madrid confirmed in late April that Mbapp\u00e9 had sustained a \u201csemitendinosus\u201d muscle injury in his left leg after going off hurt during a 1-1 draw against Real Betis in La Liga. He has since recovered and leads the French attack , but the timeline of that injury, coming at the end of a season in which Real Madrid won nothing, is worth noting. The thigh problem was the latest in a sequence of physical setbacks across the year, and it cut short his ability to build any final momentum going into the tournament.<\/p>\n

Deschamps has been direct about what the trophyless season at Madrid means for how Mbapp\u00e9 is judged. \u201cWhen Real Madrid doesn\u2019t win titles, it is clear that he is as responsible as the rest of the squad,\u201d he said. \u201cBut because he is Kylian, more is demanded and more blame is placed on him. The Real Madrid fans being unhappy and questioning the results is perfectly normal. Elite footballers know that is how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is a generous reading, and not an inaccurate one. Mbapp\u00e9 finished the club season with 41 goals and 6 assists in 41 appearances, a rate that almost any other forward in Europe would consider astounding. The team around him did not function. The debate lies in whether Mbapp\u00e9\u2018s individuality came at the cost of the team. That distinction matters, and it is one Deschamps made explicitly: the individual numbers are there, the collective results were not, and the scrutiny falls disproportionately on the biggest name.<\/p>\n

What the World Cup offers Mbapp\u00e9 is a stage where the Madrid context is stripped away. He does not need a rebuilt team around him here, Deschamps has structured France precisely to give him and Ousmane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 the space to operate. If he stays fit across seven games, the scoring records will likely fall. What that does for the mood of the Madrid dressing room next August, with Jose Mourinho arriving and a new cycle beginning, is harder to predict. A tournament-winning Mbapp\u00e9 with a goalscoring record to his name returns to Valdebebas with leverage and status that no bad domestic season can diminish. A Mbapp\u00e9 who picks up another injury and exits early comes back fragile, and the questions about his physical durability, which have been building quietly since his nose fracture at Euro 2024, will sharpen.<\/p>\n

Deschamps, who has had longer than most to study Mbapp\u00e9 up close, offered the clearest summary available. \u201cFrance will always be stronger with him,\u201d he told Marca. \u201cThat is something I have always believed and I say it again today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Aurelien<\/a><\/p>\n

Aurelien Tchouameni defensive midfield of France and Real Madrid, Ibrahima Konate centre-back of France and Liverpool FC and Kylian Mbappe centre-forward of France and Rea Madrid sitting on the bench prior the friendly match between France and Canada at Nouveau Stade Bordeaux on June 9, 2024 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tchouameni: everything that went wrong, and why it still matters<\/p>\n

Aur\u00e9lien Tchouameni\u2019s 2025\/26 season at Real Madrid was not the one anyone had mapped out for him. The climax of the campaign, in early May, was a training-ground confrontation with Fede Valverde that ended with Valverde being treated in hospital for a head injury. Both players were fined \u20ac500,000 by the club. Valverde missed the subsequent Cl\u00e1sico at Camp Nou, which Barcelona won 2-0, a result that handed them the La Liga title and confirmed Madrid\u2019s second consecutive trophyless season.<\/p>\n

Tchouameni, speaking at France\u2019s Clairefontaine training camp, characterised it as having been blown out of proportion. \u201cThings happened,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cLife goes on. Fede and I have a common goal: to win titles with Real Madrid. There is no problem.\u201d The club drew a line under the matter once the fines were paid and apologies made to the squad, coaching staff, and fans, but it stays in the background, particularly for a player who now arrives at the World Cup needing to produce something that changes the frame around his season.<\/p>\n

At international level, the picture is less complicated. Tchouameni\u2019s ability to screen the back four, win the ball in transition, and carry it into midfield is central to how Deschamps builds France defensively. Deschamps describes midfielders as \u201cfundamental\u201d to the balance he is trying to maintain between an attack-heavy squad and the defensive solidity that major tournaments require. Tchouameni is the engine of that structure.<\/p>\n

There is an added dimension here that connects directly to Madrid\u2019s summer. Ibrahima Konat\u00e9, Tchouameni\u2019s France teammate and Liverpool\u2019s first-choice centre-back, is expected to join Real Madrid on a free transfer when his contract at Anfield expires this summer. The two have played alongside each other for Les Bleus and know each other well. If France progress deep into the tournament, the pairing of Konat\u00e9 and William Saliba at the heart of the defence, and Tchouameni screening in front of them, will be one of the best defensive units in the competition. Konat\u00e9 arriving at Valdebebas having just played in a World Cup final would be a very different proposition to one arriving having exited in the last sixteen.<\/p>\n

For Tchouameni specifically, the tournament functions as a reset. Mourinho arrives in the summer and every player from last season enters the new cycle carrying the weight of what just happened. At 25 and in the prime years of what should be a long Real Madrid career, a World Cup in which he anchors France\u2019s run deep into the knockout rounds would establish that the incident with Valverde was a moment of pressure, not a window into something structural.<\/p>\n

Camavinga: the conspicuous absence<\/p>\n

Eduardo Camavinga\u2019s absence was one of the big talking points surrounding squad selections for this World Cup. Deschamps addressed the omission publicly, citing the midfielder\u2019s physical condition and lack of continuity across the season as the primary factors. Camavinga made 28 La Liga appearances but started only 16, coming off the bench in the other 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a difficult season for him where he played less. He also had injuries,\u201d Deschamps told reporters after the squad announcement. \u201cI understand and I imagine his enormous disappointment. He is entitled to be angry with me.\u201d The tone was sympathetic, but it won\u2019t have lightened the blow. Camavinga was part of the France squad that reached the 2022 final and appeared as a substitute in the loss to Argentina in Doha. To go from that to being left home entirely is a significant step backwards.<\/p>\n

The wider context makes it worse. Camavinga arrived at the Bernab\u00e9u in 2021 as one of the most technically gifted young midfielders in Europe, a left-footed operator with the athleticism to play multiple roles and the composure to do so at the highest level. This season, none of that materialised consistently.<\/p>\n

He is 23. The long-term view says he has time to rebuild. The short-term view says that missing a World Cup is the kind of absence that marks you. Mourinho arrives at the club needing to make decisions about a midfield that already carries tension from last season. A summer watching the tournament from the beach, while Tchouameni plays central minutes for a France side with genuine title ambitions, is not the preparation Camavinga needed.<\/p>\n

Whether Zidane taking over France changes anything for Camavinga longer term is an open question. A new national team manager typically means a new set of priorities and a chance to reintroduce players who fell out of favour under the previous regime. If Camavinga produces a strong first half of next season at Madrid under Mourinho, the door back into the France squad, under a manager with no personal stake in the decisions made before him, may open again faster than the current picture suggests. The precondition is that he actually forces his way into regular starts at club level first.<\/p>\n

\"LILLE,<\/a><\/p>\n

LILLE, FRANCE – JUNE 8: Michael Olise of France #11 celebrates his goal with Adrien Rabiot, Aurelien Tchouameni, Dayot Upamecano, Kylian Mbappe of France during the international friendly football match between France and Northern Ireland at Stade Pierre Mauroy – Decathlon Arena on June 8, 2026 in Villeneuve d\u2019Ascq near Lille, France. (Photo by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images) Getty Images<\/p>\n

What France\u2019s competition could mean for Real Madrid<\/p>\n

Real Madrid\u2019s 2026\/27 season begins with a new manager, a fractured recent history, and a group of players returning from a World Cup in which their individual fortunes will have diverged sharply. Konat\u00e9 arrives into that environment as a new face, but the French contingent, including Mbapp\u00e9, Tchouameni, and potentially Camavinga trying to rebuild, already represents a significant bloc inside whatever Mourinho inherits.<\/p>\n

If France win, and Deschamps, cautious as ever, says that France carries legitimate favourite status built on \u201ceverything we have constructed and the results we have obtained\u201d, Mbapp\u00e9 and Tchouameni return as world champions, the noise of last season temporarily quieted by the biggest prize in the game. Konat\u00e9 joins a dressing room in which his international teammates are on a high. The conditions for a strong collective season at Madrid, under a manager who knows how to use motivated players, are better.<\/p>\n

An early exit complicates everything differently. A France team that falls in the group stage or the round of sixteen returns carrying the same unresolved questions from the club season, plus a new layer. Deschamps goes out on a deflating note. Mbapp\u00e9\u2019s record-chasing goes unfulfilled. Tchouameni\u2019s fresh start stalls. Camavinga, who watched from home, has no World Cup shadow over him, just the question of whether he can force his way back into plans from a standing start.<\/p>\n

And then Zidane takes over Les Bleus, reconnecting with a group of players he already knows intimately from the Bernab\u00e9u. Whether that makes the France job feel closer or further away for the Madrid players who struggled this summer will depend, as it almost always does, on what happens between now and then at club level.<\/p>\n

Deschamps, reflecting on his tenure, said he never asks himself whether he could have done better because \u201cthere are no answers.\u201d He tried to give the best he had with the players available. On June 16 at MetLife Stadium, against a Senegal side with a point to prove after their AFCON final controversy, the last dance begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Didier Deschamps will leave the France job after the 2026 World Cup, as confirmed in January 2025, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,2543],"class_list":["post-35398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-france","tag-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}