{"id":7049,"date":"2026-07-23T14:34:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=7049"},"modified":"2026-07-23T14:34:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T14:34:30","slug":"france-expected-to-announce-zinedine-zidane-as-new-coach-early-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=7049","title":{"rendered":"France Expected To Announce Zinedine Zidane As New Coach Early Next Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>France&#8217;s new coach will be announced next Tuesday, when Zinedine Zidane is widely expected to replace Didier Deschamps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The French Football Federation said in a statement on Thursday that its president, Philippe Diallo, will name the coach at a news conference at the headquarters in Paris.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The 54-year-old Zidane has not coached since leaving Real Madrid in 2021. The midfield great coached Madrid to three straight Champions League titles from 2016-18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Deschamps was in charge of France for 14 years and stepped down after the World Cup, where Les Bleus lost in the semifinals to Spain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>France won the World Cup under Deschamps in 2018 and lost the final on penalties in 2022. Les Bleus also lost the European Championship final on home soil in 2016.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Zinedine was France&#8217;s playmaker when they won the 1998 World Cup, scoring twice in the final in a 3-0 win against Brazil, and starred two years later when France won the European Championship. He won the men\u2019s Ballon d\u2019Or in 1998.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Zidane played 108 games for France, scoring 31 goals, including a deft Panenka-style penalty in the 2006 World Cup final, which Les Bleus lost after he was sent off in extra time for headbutting Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the chest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>France&#8217;s next games are away to Turkey in the Nations League on Sept. 25, followed by a match in Belgium three days later. France then faces Italy at the Stade de France on Oct. 2.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY France&#8217;s new coach will be announced next Tuesday, when Zinedine Zidane is widely expected to replace Didier Deschamps. The French Football Federation said in a statement on Thursday that its president, Philippe Diallo, will name the coach at a news conference at the headquarters in Paris. The 54-year-old Zidane has not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}