‘Even some French don’t want us to win! But that does not bother me’: Tough nut France boss Didier Deschamps gets no credit but he is planning to spoil the party for Lionel Messi and Co in Sunday’s World Cup final
- France manager Didier Deschamps, 54, does not get the credit that he deserves
- Before the World Cup final, his thoughts will turn to the older brother who he lost
- Deschamps is aiming to spoil the party for Leo Messi in Sunday’s World Cup final
- The Argentina star hopes to finish off his international career with a world title
- But Les Bleus’ boss doesn’t mind that some fans will be backing Messi to win it
- Click here for the latest World Cup 2022 news, fixtures, live action and results
Before the fire and brimstone of a match which seems to be France against the world on Sunday, Didier Deschamps’ mind will stray to thoughts of loss and the bigger picture.
On the morning of his past two World Cup finals, as a player in 1998 and manager four years ago, he has remembered the older brother he lost in an air crash and felt an acute sense of a life-defining opportunity needing to be seized.
‘The years have passed. Time heals,’ he has said of how Philippe Deschamps was taken from him and how he, a 19-year-old at Nantes, was left to grieve. ‘But we cannot forget. It happened at a Christmas time. You remain marked by that for life, of course. These wounds are indelible.’
On Sunday, Didier Deschamps’ mind will stray to thoughts of loss and the bigger picture – before both his previous World Cup finals, he has remembered the older brother who he lost
Deschamps is hoping to lead France to another world title versus Argentina in Qatar on Sunday
He has not dwelt on this much beyond a few television interviews, most recently a few months ago, though he seems to take that personal tragedy into days of such significance as this.
‘It definitely gives me more strength,’ he has said. ‘Life takes people away from us, but it gives us even more unsuspected strengths. I have a professional destiny, because life has not always been easy. I do everything to go as high as possible.’
That narrative of struggle certainly applies to his leadership of the France team. L’Equipe revealed on Saturday that the French Football Federation want to meet Deschamps next month to extend his contract until 2024, though he was not impressed to have entered this tournament without that tied up.
France have never won a World Cup without him, yet he still contends with a conservative, utilitarian image, never entirely shrugging off the ‘water carrier’ tag that Eric Cantona famously bestowed on him when they played together in the team.
It was noticeable that Arsene Wenger made no allusion to Deschamps in an interview for L’Equipe on Saturday in which he reflected on the reasons for France being so successful — more so than England — at World Cups.
Les Bleus have never won the trophy without him, in 1998 and 2018, but the boss has found it hard to shake off his conservative, utilitarian image or Eric Cantona’s ‘water carrier’ tag
Deschamps was a tough-tackling defensive midfielder, not as gifted as Zinedine Zidane (left)
‘France know how to win it because they’ve already done so. England haven’t won it and it’s taking them time,’ said Wenger, who suggested that amateur coaching is better in France than England. The oversight will not surprise Deschamps, who is unapologetic for lacking the aesthetic some in France seem to want.
‘I was a water carrier. I don’t reject my image,’ he said a few years back. ‘I didn’t have the pretension to think that I could change a match by myself. Players like me, we did something of a thankless job.
‘You don’t show a hard tackle or stripping someone of possession in slow motion on the big screen. But if you add it all up, I was always the one that the coaches wrote down automatically on the team sheet.’
One of his mentors, Aimé Jacquet, the coach of the 1998 French team, used to call Deschamps, who stands 5ft 8½ inches tall, ‘Trois Pommes’, after the French expression for someone who is short: ‘As tall as three apples.’ But Jacquet also offered a rider: ‘You’ll never take a bite out of him.’
A lot of players in the team who face Argentina on Sunday have been bearers of the water jug. This is a France with less flair than previous incarnations; plagued by injury and now a virus, though Raphael Varane, Ibrahima Konate and Kingsley Coman, all laid low by it, did train on Saturday.
Arsene Wenger made no allusion to Deschamps in an interview on Saturday in which he reflected on the reasons for France being so successful – more so than England – at World Cups
But the 54-year-old has led his imperfect France team to another final at the global tournament
The team have found a way of grinding out wins despite periods of jeopardy, as Poland and England can attest.
And now for Argentina, Lionel Messi, and the sense that it is written in the stars for them, rather than France, to add a third World Cup star to their jerseys.
Deschamps applied his usual phlegmatism to the notion that most of the watching world wants an Argentina win.
‘I often get that feeling but I’m fine being alone. It doesn’t bother me,’ said the 54-year-old. ‘These uncertainties always arrive. We are here and we have done everything we can to be well prepared.
‘I know that Argentina and many people around the world, even some French people as well, hope that Lionel Messi will win the World Cup — but we are going to do everything to achieve our objective.
He is tasked with disappointing thousands who hope to see Argentina’s Lionel Messi win it
‘Argentinians are very passionate people. They get behind their team and that is a positive thing. It is good to have an atmosphere like that in a World Cup final. But our opponents aren’t in the crowd, they are a team we face on the pitch.’
The French will not entirely lack support. President Emmanuel Macron’s delegation will include injured pair Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante. France arrive at the Lusail Stadium with their own narrative, too.
‘Leur Histoire’ (‘Their History’) was Saturday’s headline on a memorable L’Equipe cover, with an image of Olivier Giroud lifting Mbappe beside the iconic shot of Pele and Jairzinho in that pose in 1970. France are looking to complete the first back-to-back wins since Brazil in 1958 and 1962.
When the 19-year-old Mbappe became the youngest player since a 17-year-old Pele to score in a World Cup final four years ago, the Brazilian tweeted to say he might have to ‘dust off’ his boots. To which Mbappe replied: ‘The King will always remain the King.’
The 82-year-old’s health has improved to the extent that he may watch the final from his hospital bed. So France feel the pull of destiny too.
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