⚽ Zidane is back — this time on the touchline

Didier Deschamps had managed France for 14 years — longer than anyone in the job — before stepping down after a 2026 World Cup semi-final exit to Spain. Big shoes. Enormous, actually.

Zinedine Zidane has been confirmed as his successor. The 1998 World Cup winner with France hasn't been in management since leaving Real Madrid for the second time in 2021 — four years away from the dugout.

The man who lifted the trophy as a player now inherits the mission of lifting it as a coach. Whether lightning strikes the same country twice is the whole question.

BBC Sport