Zinedine Zidane coach of the France team? It is still far from being done.
Didier Deschamps made his decision and affirmed it again during the November rally: the French team will have a new coach at the end of the 2026 World Cup. After 14 years at the head of the Blues, the Bayonne technician will then pass on the torch. Possibly to a Zinedine Zidane who has been waiting in the starting blocks for a while now.
The outcome seems inevitable as the profile of the three-time Champions League winner on the Real Madrid bench is unanimous. And yet there is a significant grain of sand that could compromise everything. A slight annoyance that requires discussion and clarification before taking the step of commitment.
The timing now accepted – and especially wanted by the president of the French Football Federation Philippe Diallo – provides for a transfer of power next July, after the World Cup. Only until then, it will be appropriate to settle all the contractual details and find solutions to the annoying issues.
An embarrassing lifetime contract
“ If the formalization therefore takes place in July, all financial and contractual elements will logically have been settled in advance. Starting with the most thorny one relating to the lifetime contract linking “ZZ” to Adidas, when the FFF has been under the Nike flag since 2011 and until 2034thus recalls Le Parisien. It will first be necessary to define the perimeters of each of the two brands without offending anyone. »
Muse of the brand with the three stripes, Zinedine Zidane will inevitably have to make concessions by rallying the tricolor cause for which the brand with the comma pays some 100 million euros each year. A potential point of contention which, however, did not prevent the number 10 of the 1998 world champions from projecting himself so far. “ I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I feel like I can do something with the national team, that’s what I would like to do one day », the legend modestly whispered last month on the sidelines of a sports festival organized in Italy.
