France will have a new face on the touchline for the first time in 14 years when they face Turkey on Friday.

Zinedine Zidane replaced Didier Deschamps after France’s fourth-place finish at the World Cup, but his appointment had been an open secret long before Les Bleus’ third-place play-off loss to England.

Talks between the former Real Madrid manager and the French football authorities kicked off as early as February 2025 – after Zidane’s former team-mate Deschamps announced a few weeks earlier he would step down following the 2026 World Cup.

When he was unveiled in Paris, Zidane was keen to highlight the time he had spent waiting on the sidelines and preparing for the job.

“I had several offers in the last four or five years, but I turned them all down,” an emotional Zidane said. “The national team is the only thing I wanted.”

While his enthusiasm at taking the job was the overarching theme of his first news conference in the French capital, the midfield legend offered few clues to France fans as to how he would approach the role.

Even a question on Kylian Mbappe’s captaincy was bypassed: “The most important thing for him now is to rest, we’ll have the chance to speak in September.”

Mbappe, speaking to Spanish newspaper AS, has since said having the former Real Madrid star as his national team coach was “like a film”.

When asked about his preferred style of play, Zidane opted against going into tactical detail.

“I can’t explain to you in just a couple of words how we’re going win. I have to arrive, meet with the players, and explain my plans to them. After that, it’ll be up to me to keep this team winning.”

However, Zidane confirmed his intention “to do things differently” and he has called up five uncapped players for this international break.

He went on to signal that there would be a degree of “continuation” from the work of his predecessor, which he made sure to praise.

“I’m going to try do what I know how to, but it won’t be a complete break either.”

So what will Zidane bring to the France dugout?

Zidane, who retired in 2006, was one of the most exciting attacking midfielders of his generation.

He won league titles and European trophies with Juventus and Real Madrid, while he helped France to victory at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

Zidane started his career at Cannes and then moved to Bordeuax.

He almost joined Premier League side Blackburn Rovers in 1995, but the move broke down with Rovers owner Jack Walker reportedly asking manager Kenny Dalglish: “Why do you want to sign Zidane when we have Tim Sherwood?”

Instead Zidane moved to Juventus, winning six trophies, before he was signed by Real Madrid for a then record £45.8m.

For France he was the hero of the home 1998 World Cup, scoring twice in the final, a 3-0 win over Brazil and was named the best player at Euro 2000.

He retired after the 2006 World Cup, a campaign full of highs, leading France to the final, and one big low, when his playing career ended after he was sent off in the showpiece match for headbutting Italy defender Marco Materazzi.

Zidane and Deschamps – two 1998 World Cup winners – do share a few similar traits in their management, not least in their pragmatism, as well as the laissez-faire approach to attacking phases which Deschamps embraced in the recent World Cup.

Given the attacking talent at his disposal, it stands to reason that Zidane would carry on in that vein.

“I was a number 10 as a player,” he said, hinting he would retain the role Michael Olise thrived in for much of the summer.

“What motivates me is the game, it’s scoring goals,” he added.

With the team netting 20 times in North America, Deschamps has arguably laid the foundations for his successor’s attacking set-up.

Zidane is finding Les Bleus in immeasurably better shape than his predecessor did at the start of his own tenure, at which point the wounds of the 2010 World Cup fiasco were still fresh.

The appointment does come with a degree of uncertainty, though.

Given that Zidane has spent five years out of management, and the Real Madrid job is the only other senior coaching role of his career, it might seem like a gamble.

The 54-year-old himself has acknowledged leading a national team would be an entirely new proposition: “It’s new to me, but I’m not scared. This is what I wanted.”

Predictably, the reaction among players and fans to Zidane’s arrival has been almost unanimously positive. He was met with a crowd of supporters carrying flares and banners as he left the French Football Federation’s headquarters after his unveiling.

“Welcome home,” Mbappe wrote on Instagram later in the day.

“It’s a great day for French football,” his former France and Bordeaux team-mate Bixente Lizarazu told France Info later that day.

“He is more than fit to manage Les Bleus, given what he did at Real Madrid with great players and big egos.”

The respect that the former Ballon d’Or winner commands in a dressing room is one of his key strengths.

Even more so than Deschamps, a France legend in his own right, Zidane is a figure who can rival – perhaps even overshadow – his own players in terms of star power.

In this sense, he may be the ideal manager to get the most out of an attack made up of Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue and Olise.

This international break – lasting four Nations League fixtures over three weeks – will offer the France players a crash-course to the new management style.

After facing Turkey, they have two games against Belgium and one against Italy in Paris.

Given his iconic status within French football and on the wider national stage, Zidane will invariably enjoy an unprecedented degree of goodwill regardless of his initial results.

Whether he uses that leeway to experiment tactically and bring in new faces remains to be seen.

His homecoming at the Stade de France on Friday, 2 October, against the Azzurri no less, is an ideal fixture to begin the new era.

A version of this article was first published on 28 July.