‘No Feeling Compares To Lifting The World Cup’-Deschamps

France manager Didier Deschamps believes that winning the FIFA World Cup stands alone as football’s greatest achievement — unmatched by any club trophy or personal accolade.

Deschamps knows the feeling well. As a player, he helped France claim their first World Cup on home soil in 1998. Twenty years later, as head coach, he led Les Bleus to glory again at Russia 2018.

“Those moments in 1998 and 2018 will never leave me,” Deschamps told FIFA.com. “But the past is the past. What matters now is what we do next.”

He added: “My role changed between those two titles, but I was there for both. Magical doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’ve won the Champions League and other trophies at club level — but nothing, absolutely nothing, beats being a world champion. Your name stays the same, but you carry those two extra words forever: world champion.”

Deschamps plans to step down after the 2026 World Cup. Yet he could write another historic chapter if France win the final on July 19.

Only three men have ever won the World Cup as both player and coach: Deschamps, the late Mario Zagallo, and Franz Beckenbauer. If France triumph again this summer, Deschamps would become the first coach to win the trophy twice. He would also lead his nation to three consecutive World Cup finals — an unprecedented feat.

France enter the tournament as favorites once more, just as they did at Qatar 2022, where they finished as runners-up.

“Our results have raised expectations,” said the former Juventus coach. “We won in 2018 and reached the final in 2022, so naturally our fans expect to see France still standing by mid-July. We are one of perhaps ten or twelve nations who can realistically dream of becoming world champions. But in the end, only one will be. That means at least eleven disappointed countries.”

Deschamps’ side have been drawn in Group I alongside Senegal, Norway, and Iraq.