Paris, Friday. Fourteen years have passed since France last saw a new face in the dugout, and that face now belongs to a man the country has been waiting — and arguing — about for most of those years. Zinedine Zidane takes charge of Les Bleus against Turkey this week, stepping into a role that has felt inevitable ever since he hung up his boots in 2006. The appointment was an open secret long before France's third-place play-off defeat to England sealed Didier Deschamps's exit; back-channel talks between Zidane and French football authorities had already begun in February 2025.

At his unveiling in the French capital, an emotional Zidane wasted no time making the moment personal. "I had several offers in the last four or five years, but I turned them all down," he told reporters. "The national team is the only thing I wanted." It is a striking declaration from a man who has been courted by some of the biggest clubs on the planet, and it signals that this job carries a weight for him that money and prestige alone cannot explain.

Yet the practical questions were met with deliberate vagueness. On Kylian Mbappé's captaincy, on tactical philosophy, on exactly how he plans to unlock a squad packed with world-class talent — Zidane deflected each one with the calm certainty of someone who believes actions will matter more than words. Mbappé, for his part, told Spanish newspaper AS that having his former Real Madrid boss as national coach felt "like a film." What is clear is that Zidane intends to leave his own mark.