THE NETWORK

Zinedine Zidane Returns as France Coach — and What It Means for Mbappe’s Legacy

Zinedine Zidane has reached a verbal agreement with the FFF to take over as France national team coach following the 2026 World Cup, according to multiple French media reports in March 2026. Didier Deschamps, who has managed the team since 2012, will step down after the tournament. The appointment — if confirmed formally — creates one of the most commercially and symbolically loaded coaching relationships in world football: the greatest French player of the Platini-era successor generation managing the greatest French player of the current one.

Zidane and Mbappe — The Generational Transfer

Zidane won the 1998 World Cup. He won Euro 2000. He won three Champions Leagues as Real Madrid manager. His playing career record — including the 2006 World Cup Golden Ball at age 34 — gives him a degree of authority with Mbappe that few coaches in the world could match. Mbappe has referenced Zidane publicly as a childhood hero. The dynamic between a player who revered his future coach as a child and now must deliver results under him is narratively rich and commercially potent.

The Real Madrid Connection

Zidane managed Real Madrid twice — winning three consecutive Champions Leagues from 2016 to 2018. Mbappe joined Real Madrid in 2024, the club where Zidane built his managerial legacy. The institutional familiarity between the two is not accidental. Zidane knows the Santiago Bernabeu’s culture from the inside. His understanding of what Real Madrid demands from its players — and the pressure it places on its captain — will shape how he manages Mbappe’s international workload once he takes charge.

For the full World Cup context, see the Deschamps last dance analysis.

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— Victor Blanc | Mbappe Live | Football Business Correspondent