French Football Federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet has let slip that Zinedine Zidane could soon be taking the reins at Paris Saint-Germain.
Zidane, who has been out of work since leaving Real Madrid in 2021, has been heavily linked with the newly-crowned French champions as they embark on a summer regeneration at the Parc des Princes.
The likely departure of Mauricio Pochettino at the end of the season has led to PSG’s Qatari owners making Zidane their ‘dream’ managerial appointment this summer, but Zidane has been linked to taking over as coach of Les Bleus once Deschamps’ time is up.
‘You have to be careful what you say. Zidane has shown Madrid that he has qualities that were barely imaginable,’ said Le Graet to L’Equipe when queried on whether Zidane could be in the frame to replace Deschamps in the future.
‘In the minds of the French, he may be a successor. But that’s not my goal. We’ll see. If Didier and I go our separate ways, he will surely be one of the options.’
The FFF president admitted that when Deschamps does call it quits, he can only choose the successor from those that are available.
Le Graet added: ‘We’ll see what happens; Zidane might take on PSG, for the France team, you have to be free.
‘But today, we are going to do everything to put Didier in the best conditions to win this World Cup.’
Reigning world champions France head to Qatar this winter aiming to defend the trophy they spectacularly won in Russia four years ago when Deschamps became the third person in history to win the World Cup both as a player and a manager.
France have a deep pool of talent to choose from and with emerging talent such as Aurelien Tchouameni and Christopher Nkunku joining 2018 winners Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante, France are in a strong position to lift the trophy in Doha in December.
‘We want to defend our title. But the objective is at least the last four, as usual,’ said Le Graet.
When asked if Deschamps would be offered a new contract should France fail to make the semi-final, he added: ‘We’ll discuss that later. He is our employee, but he’s also a friend. I have a very courteous relationship with him
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