Wednesday's message came as no great sensation considering how long Deschamps has been in his position.
As early as 2012, he took over after Laurent Blanc – and became over time one of football's most successful national team coaches with a European Championship silver (2016), a World Championship gold (2018), and a World Championship silver (2022).
I have served with pleasure and passion to keep the French national team at the highest level, but it feels right to stop in 2026.
It will end there, for it must end sometime. For me, it is completely clear, he says in an interview with the French TV channel LCI.
Deschamps, 56, is one of only three who have won World Championship gold as both a player and a national team coach. The other two are the Brazilian Mario Zagallo and the German Franz Beckenbauer, both deceased last year.
Deschamps was team captain when France won the World Championship on home soil in 1998 and two years later followed up with the European Championship gold in the Netherlands and Belgium.
If France qualifies, the World Championship matches in North America in the summer of 2026 will be the last as national team coach.
What he will do after that, he has no clear picture of.
There is life after this. I do not know how it will be.
