​When England sealed an astonishing victory in Mexico City, they joined the double-figure club. It marked their 10th win in World Cup knockout games since the 1966 final, a tally that underscored the depth and persistence of a team built for the pressure of the tournament’s climactic rounds. A day earlier, another milestone came into view: a manager had reached double figures as well. France, under Didier Deschamps, sit at 10 in the same sense—though for him the count can be argued to reach 13 or 14, depending on whether penalty shootout deciders are counted as part of a player’s or a manager’s record, especially when considering his role as captain of the 1998 Les Bleus side. France have now appeared in four World Cup finals: two times with Deschamps as a participant manager, one final where he led the team in the captaincy, and another final occasion shaped by the remnants of a squad he had steered from midfield. He is now one step from elimination and three steps from being regarded as the greatest World Cup boss of all time.
Deschamps could finish this World Cup as the tournament’s greatest manager, a possibility that has loomed over his tenure. His reign has been so successful that it sometimes seems as though familiar foes reappear in the path he treads. Thursday’s quarter-final in Boston will see France face the Morocco side they defeated in the 2022 last four, and the prospect of a second consecutive final against Argentina—following their dramatic last-16 meeting in Russia—also lingers. Alternatively, they could meet England again, the opponents Deschamps’s France overcame at this stage four years prior.
The signs of transformation wrought by a departing manager are evident not only in France but across the sport’s broader landscape. When Deschamps took the helm fourteen years ago, Italy had 44 World Cup wins to France’s 25. If Les Bleus surpass Morocco, the Azzurri’s 45 will stand as a nearby milestone. His overall record—19 victories in 24 matches, with three draws and two defeats, or 19 wins, three draws, and two defeats if the 2022 final penalties are counted as a loss—reads as extraordinary, yet he has managed to normalize it in the public imagination.
France possess a roaster of talent that Deschamps has coached to maximum effect. He has exploited the resources at his disposal with a deft touch, turning potential into performance. Yet even as the talent pool has grown deeper, the manager’s influence remains the decisive factor—proof that he has taught the system to adapt while maintaining a recognizably France style. Before Deschamps assumed control, France oscillated between peaks of triumph and troughs of disappointment: 1998 champions who faltered in the 2002 group stage; 2006 finalists who then laboured in 2010. The Deschamps era is notable precisely for its continuity: since 2014, France have reached the quarter-finals in every World Cup, a remarkable consistency that has become a defining feature of his tenure.
The evolution has been palpable. Deschamps has crafted not one but two generational teams: one long-term project for the 2010s and a newer version for the 2020s. There have been constants that have endured across international careers—figures such as Hugo Lloris, Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud, and, most recently, Kylian Mbappé, the fourth French player to reach a century of appearances under Deschamps. Griezmann’s 137 caps—achieved largely under a single managerial umbrella—speaks to the stability and loyalty of the system he has overseen.
And yet, despite the gravity of these constants, change has been a natural companion to success. Each four-year cycle has brought fresh selections, new tactical wrinkles, and an evolving balance between established stalwarts and emerging talents. Deschamps’ early squad—stretching back to the 2014 quarter-final contenders who were edged out by eventual champions—set the template for a era defined by resilience, adaptability, and a relentless appetite for progression.