Didier Deschamps arrives at France’s Clairefontaine base with the pressure of past World Cup success—and a fresh debate around Kylian Mbappé’s role. He insists Mbappé, now the captain, speaks for the whole group, defends his attacking use, and frames the hard
On a wet afternoon, Didier Deschamps walks into the France set-up at the Château de Clairefontaine with the weight of history in front of him: a three-metre replica of the World Cup trophy, flanked by two stars marking France’s World Cup triumphs.
He was the captain behind the 1998 win. He later repeated the feat as manager in 2018. In the years since, France have reached four of the last seven World Cup finals—and Deschamps has been involved in three of those end games. In North America, he will have one more shot at reaching another.
“We’re among the favourites,” Deschamps says when the interview begins. “It isn’t a taboo word for me. If we have this status today, which seems logical and legitimate to me, it’s because of everything that we have done, the results we achieved.”
His assistant, Guy Stéphan, slips his head through the door at one point. “You’ve got the best,” he jokes. Deschamps smiles back: “He is always very objective.” The partnership itself feels like an answer to the constant argument around him—deserved or not. the record as a player and then a manager is hard to escape.
Outside the room, the debate follows Deschamps anyway. He acknowledges that abroad, people see France differently. “Abroad there is perhaps more recognition,” he says. “I know very well, since I also travel a lot abroad, that the feeling abroad is different from the one in France.”
Inside France, the criticism tends to land on the way the team plays. “It depends what you mean by ‘play style’,” he says, pausing and letting out a small chuckle. “Internationally. that’s one thing. but then there’s France and God knows that. if the France team has been categorised as a [team with a] defensive. restrictive game. it didn’t prevent us from getting results.”.
When he turns to his own thinking, legacy isn’t the lever. “it doesn’t matter” is the phrase he uses. “nor does it interest him.” What matters is the present. he says. and what comes immediately after—“the most important thing is today and tomorrow. and tomorrow is the World Cup.” After that. he adds. “everyone will have their own … interpretation. their own feeling.”.
France’s expectations are not just shaped by trophies. Colleagues understand the way he works, too. Deschamps says Gareth Southgate was a disciple while he has also exchanged messages with Thomas Tuchel—“a very good manager that I like a lot. too. and with whom I have the chance to talk a lot”—as well as Brazil’s Carlo Ancelotti and former Germany head coach Hansi Flick.
Three major finals in 14 years and a Nations League title have earned him a status that Stéphan’s joke barely touches: the godfather of modern international football. Even so, Deschamps insists there is no secret formula to copy.
“I have a magic word: adaptation … I say to myself, ‘In relation to the person I have in front of me, I adapt.’ And so it leads to modifications … It’s not because we did this and it worked well that we shouldn’t change. It’s not about changing for the sake of changing either,” he says.
He carries that idea into the human side of selection. “The generation from when I started in 2012 is not the same as today … the new generation need more exchanges,” Deschamps says, describing how he has managed a changing of the guard in the France dressing room.
Since the 2022 World Cup final defeat to Argentina. a procession of names has stepped away from international football: Hugo Lloris. Olivier Giroud. Raphaël Varane and Antoine Griezmann all retired from international football. “The baton has been passed,” Deschamps says as he points to the successor he has chosen—Kylian Mbappé.
Lloris is France’s most-capped player of all time. Mbappé now wears the captain’s armband. Deschamps explains why the decision fits the person, not just the role. “Kylian, today, who is our captain, before being captain, he listened, he looked, he doesn’t do things like Hugo. It’s not at all the same character and personality. He takes on this leadership outside. on the pitch as well. and he knows that when he speaks. he doesn’t speak in his own name. but he speaks in the name of all the players as well.”.
Then he defends another choice that has been scrutinised: how Mbappé is used in attack. Deschamps says that if Mbappé plays in the central positions the way people question now, it’s not an accident. “I must be stupid. and there must have been a lot of stupid people who he has had as coaches to put him in the middle of the attack within the teams he has played … for the past two years at Real and his last year at PSG … it’s been three years that he has played in a central position.”.
Mbappé’s form did not arrive neatly for Euro 2024. He underwhelmed at the tournament. Breaking his nose in the opener against Austria didn’t help. Deschamps also says his preparation for the tournament was “suboptimal”. adding: “He arrived following his final six months with PSG. which were very. very difficult. He didn’t have much playing time.”.
Despite all that, Deschamps is ready for the pressure that comes with one number. Mbappé heads to this World Cup one goal shy of Giroud’s all-time scoring record for France, which stands at 57. “one goal shy” is not just a statistic in Deschamps’ mind—it’s part of the justification for his choices.
For Deschamps, the key word repeated during the interview is balance. He says the team’s shape must be right. “For Mbappé to surpass Giroud’s record, Deschamps must find the right ‘balance’, a word he repeats eight times during our talk on a wet afternoon.”
At the 2022 World Cup, he says France already had four attackers starting. He answers the fear that changing from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 could expose the famously resolute defence by pointing to how the system actually worked.
He describes the role of Griezmann. placed within the midfield three at the 2022 World Cup as the fourth attacker in that system. His replacement in the team came in the form of Michael Olise. Deschamps praises what Olise brings. calling him “more of a discreet person. a little shy. ” but says the effect on the pitch is different. “when he’s on the pitch, it’s wonderful,” he adds. “Today, he’s someone who is shining, and he is one of the best players at the World Cup.”.
Balance, though, isn’t only tactical. It’s also the uneasy reality of squad decisions. There are simply too many attacking options to start them all. Mbappé, Olise, Ousmane Dembélé, Rayan Cherki, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Marcus Thuram, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Maghnes Akliouche cannot all play.
“It’s about managing the frustration of those who won’t start the game,” Deschamps says. “It’s always hard to accept. because each player thinks he’s better than the one who plays in his place … ask any professional footballer at the very highest level. they will say: ‘Competition?. Well. of course. it’s part of our life. ’ but only when it concerns a teammate. when it concerns them it’s more difficult.”.
That human pressure feeds into a selection debate wider than just the starting XI. Deschamps insists it isn’t about grabbing “simply taking the best 26 players to the World Cup.” In part, he points to what international management demands—and how experience matters.
He will be 58 in October. International management, he says, is “a totally different job” to managing at club level, and none of his counterparts at the World Cup have the experience he has accrued.
“If I’m still here today, it’s because the French team has won a lot of games. Otherwise, it could have ended before, whether I decided it or it was decided for me,” he says.
There is a turning point coming, and the interview doesn’t avoid it. Deschamps confirms that, as he confirmed in January 2025, he will depart upon the conclusion of Les Bleus’ campaign this summer. He frames it as the end of a job, not a personal retreat.
“This isn’t retirement,” he says. Yet the next chapter is still blank. “I won’t make any decision until after [the World Cup],” he says, though he admits there have been offers.
When asked about the possibility of a hiatus, Deschamps says he has “the freedom to choose”. He contrasts that with what happened during his previous extended break. “That wasn’t the case the last time he took an extended period away from the game.”
He recounts a moment from when he was running his own career: “I stopped at Juventus in 2007. Between 2007 and 2009. I was on all the shortlists, practically. But my son told me: ‘The problem is that you always come up short.’”
He doesn’t need the World Cup to put himself in the shop window. The record does that job for him.
Still, Deschamps doesn’t care about legacy. Yet as he departed the Château de Clairefontaine for the last time on Sunday, he has already left one behind—inside France’s football identity, in the players he has reshaped, and in the belief that adaptation, not nostalgia, is what keeps a team winning.
Didier Deschamps Kylian Mbappé France captain World Cup Clairefontaine Michael Olise balance squad selection Guy Stéphan Thomas Tuchel Carlo Ancelotti Hansi Flick