Fourteen years. Seven major tournaments. Five semifinals. One World Cup trophy. And now Didier Deschamps gets to walk off into a Miami sunset coaching a third-place playoff, the football equivalent of getting a participation ribbon at a potluck you brought the main dish to.
That’s the business, pal. You don’t get to pick the exit.
Deschamps, 57, leads France against England on Saturday in the 2026 World Cup’s bronze-medal match, his 27th game on the touchline at this tournament — a record. It closes a reign that began in 2012, when French football was still washing the taste of a 2010 squad mutiny out of its mouth. He rebuilt the whole operation, captained the 1998 World Cup winners as a player, then coached the 2018 edition to the title. He took them to the 2022 final, lost on penalties to Argentina, and came back for one more swing.
France swaggered through this tournament like they owned the joint — attacking, free-flowing, Mbappé and Dembélé and Olise let off the leash. Then Spain walked into Arlington and served them a 2-0 shutout in the semifinal. Ballgame.
“I had the privilege of experiencing moments that were magical, and others that were difficult,” Deschamps said Friday. “But life goes on. I’m a positive person, and I know things will be good, too. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
The man’s mother died during this tournament. He flew home for the funeral, missed a game, came back to work. If you want to know what a coach is made of, there it is — not the tactics board, not the press conference. That.
Waiting in the wings is Zinedine Zidane, 54, Deschamps’ teammate from the ’98 squad and a man whose aura in French football could power a small city. Zidane has called managing France his “dream.” French Football Federation president Philippe Diallo told Le Figaro earlier this year that the next coach needs to be “someone who ticks every box and who everyone in France can get behind.” Nobody had to say the name. Everybody knew.
Across the hallway, England’s Thomas Tuchel is wearing his own loss like a bad sunburn. His side led Argentina 1-0 in their semifinal before Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez turned it around in Atlanta. Tuchel’s defensive substitutions got roasted by every pundit with a microphone — and, somehow, by the President of the United States.
“You have a great player in England, who I played golf with,” Donald Trump said at a World Cup event at Trump Tower, referring to Harry Kane. “I think they perhaps made a mistake when they made him a defensive player.”
Tuchel’s response to being told about Trump’s critique: “Do you use Donald Trump as your witness for the case or…?”
The German coach was more expansive about the pain itself. “We have to live with this, so it’s our pain, my pain and the players’ pain — we feel the most pain of all,” he said. “And it is our scar that we carry now.”
He also conceded the gap. England, fourth in the FIFA rankings, still trails Argentina, Spain, and France — the three nations that expect to be in finals. “The gap shows in almost the expectations of these countries to win a World Cup,” Tuchel said.
Sunday’s final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, pairs the world’s top-ranked team against the defending champions. Spain, unbeaten in 37 matches, have conceded one goal all tournament. Argentina, on a 14-game winning streak, lean on a 39-year-old Lionel Messi who has eight goals and is set to win the Golden Boot. Spain’s Lamine Yamal, 19, has one goal this World Cup and the weight of a nation waiting for him to produce something that lasts.
Both sides, as one analyst put it, will happily take a dull 1-0 win. The rest of us will hope for anything but.
Sources:
Al Jazeera — Deschamps set for final World Cup match as Zidane waits
Al Jazeera — Tuchel: England carry ‘scars’ of World Cup heartbreak
The Guardian — World Cup 2026 latest: buildup to France v England and Spain v Argentina
Al Jazeera — World Cup final: Spain vs Argentina — Which team has best chance to win?
Yahoo Sports — World Cup final: Spain vs Argentina