Zidane Takes Over France: New Era After Deschamps
Thierry Henry has already had a taste of leading his country on home soil. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, he took a youthful France side all the way to a final against Spain, only to watch extra-time rip the gold from their grasp. Silver medals for Michael Olise and company, and a familiar feeling of “so close” for a nation that measures itself in trophies.
That tournament, though, did something important. It reminded everyone just how comfortable Henry looks with the tricolore on his shoulders and a technical area beneath his feet.
Zidane steps in, Deschamps bows out
France are entering a new era. Didier Deschamps, the man who has defined the modern national team for 14 years, is walking away with a World Cup title in 2018 and a UEFA Nations League triumph on his CV. Semi-finals, finals, constant presence at the sharp end of tournaments – his record is the standard by which the next man will be judged.
That next man is Zinedine Zidane. A Ballon d’Or winner, a 1998 world champion, and a serial trophy collector at Real Madrid. For the first time, he takes a job outside the Bernabeu bubble, stepping into a role loaded with expectation and armed with a squad that features Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and a conveyor belt of frightening talent.
For Jeremie Aliadiere, another member of that fabled 1998 generation and part of Arsenal’s “Invincibles”, Zidane’s arrival feels almost mythical. Speaking to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, he framed it in simple, reverent terms: “Zidane in France is something different and now we've touched the gods. Zidane will always be Zidane.”
The bar is already set high. Deschamps may not have lifted the most recent World Cup, but he kept France in the habit of going deep into tournaments. Zidane inherits that platform, and with it, a brutal reality: anything less than silverware will be questioned.
“He has to win something”
Aliadiere did not dance around it. Zidane’s mandate is clear.
“The next step now really for Zidane, he has to win something,” he said. “He can't just come and then do a semi-final or a quarter-finals. And we know how hard it is to win it. Only one team can.”
France know that pressure. So do England, who have spent recent tournaments hovering just short of glory. “They are so close but not quite there,” Aliadiere pointed out, warning how patience can fray when a golden generation keeps falling just shy of the podium’s top step.
The difference for France is the sheer depth at Zidane’s disposal. This is not a rebuild. It is a handover of a machine already in motion.
“Zidane's going to come in and he hasn't got a lot to do really,” Aliadiere said. “Everything's already set for him to succeed.”
A golden era still gathering pace
France’s current crop is not winding down; it is maturing. Mbappe is entering his peak years. Dembele has experience and still possesses the chaos to unpick any defence. Behind them, a queue of hungry, gifted players is forming.
Aliadiere highlighted names who barely scratched the surface at the last major tournament. Rayan Cherki struggled for minutes. Hugo Ekitike missed out through injury. Both, in his view, will be back in the frame over the next two to four years.
“You think a player like [Rayan] Cherki who couldn't get much minutes in there, he'll be in for two years, four years,” Aliadiere said. “You think about [Hugo] Ekitike who was injured before it. It's like the names that you've got and the talent you've got, I think Zidane now has just got to put his little magic on it and then make it work.”
From that perspective, France’s status as contenders for the European Championship and World Cup is not up for debate. “Yeah, 100%,” he insisted. Deschamps, after all, has already shown what can be done with this level of quality. One World Cup is “more than a lot of anyone else”, as Aliadiere put it, but his broader legacy is the culture and consistency he leaves behind.
Henry waiting in the wings?
Amid all the noise around Zidane, another storyline hums quietly in the background: what happens when this chapter ends?
Two icons from the 1998 World Cup-winning side have now taken the national team reins. Could a third follow? Could Thierry Henry keep the class of ’98 thread running through the dugout?
Aliadiere does not see why not. “Why not? I'm sure Thierry will be delighted to get the job,” he said. “We've seen how patriotic he is and how much he loves France. We saw him during the Olympic Games in 2024 as well. He's had a great tournament there. I'm sure that'll be in the back of his mind and he will love to get the opportunity at some point.”
Henry’s coaching journey has been eclectic rather than linear. A short, testing spell at Monaco. A return to MLS with Montreal Impact. A role beside Roberto Martinez with Belgium, working at close quarters with another star-studded national side. Most recently, a step back into punditry while he keeps his options open.
He is not rushing. He does not need to. The right offer, though, will always make him listen.
And if that offer, one day, comes from the French Football Federation?
For now, France belongs to Zidane and his pursuit of another star on the shirt. But with Henry’s Olympic audition still fresh in the memory and his patriotism unquestioned, the question lingers over the horizon: when Zidane’s time is done, does destiny call the No. 12 back to the touchline in blue?
