Mbappé publicly told Deschamps: I do not want to see him on another national team’s bench
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup, Kylian Mbappé spoke openly about the future of Didier Deschamps and sent a message that immediately resonated widely in France. The captain of the French national team said he would not want the long-serving head coach, after leaving the Les Bleus bench, to take over another national team, especially Italy, which is in a sensitive period after another failure in qualifying. According to a Stats Perform report published by SoccerNews, Mbappé called the possibility of Deschamps one day leading Italy “awful” and admitted with a smile that he is trying to put pressure on his head coach. The French forward also said that Deschamps “belongs” to France, making it clear how much the coach who has led them since 2012 means to the players. The statement came at a moment when the French national team is preparing for the final major tournament of Deschamps’s tenure, and the head coach himself has already announced that he will end his era on the France bench after the 2026 World Cup.
The captain wants a farewell with victory, not a new national-team project
Speaking to French broadcaster M6, according to Stats Perform, Mbappé said that the best way to pay tribute to Deschamps would be another major result with France. “The best way to honour him is to win, because he loves winning,” said the Les Bleus captain. In the same statement, he added that he hopes the 2026 World Cup will be Deschamps’s last tournament with any national team, because he does not want the French head coach to lead another national team after that. Such wording is not only an emotional gesture toward the coach with whom he won the world title in 2018, but also a clear signal of the importance Deschamps has within the current generation of French internationals.
According to the same report, Mbappé reacted especially to the possibility of an Italian scenario. “They said Italy, that would be awful. I am putting pressure on him,” said the French captain, alluding to media speculation that intensified after Italy once again missed out on the World Cup. Mbappé did not speak in a hostile tone toward Italy, but from the perspective of a player who sees Deschamps as part of French identity. Several days earlier, according to Football Italia, Mbappé had also spoken about his respect for Italy and his regret over its absence from the World Cup, so his new statement primarily concerns loyalty to the head coach and the national team he leads.
Deschamps leaves after a tournament that closes a fourteen-year cycle
Didier Deschamps confirmed back in January 2025 that he would not continue leading France after the 2026 World Cup. According to a Reuters report carried by RTÉ, the French Football Federation then confirmed that Deschamps would not seek an extension of the contract that expires in 2026, while the head coach himself said the decision was clear in his mind and that “you have to know when to stop”. This opened the question of his successor, but also the question of his possible future role. Although the media most often mention a return to club football or a possible role with another national team, Deschamps has remained cautious publicly and has stressed that his current focus is solely on the World Cup.
Deschamps’s connection with France is exceptionally deep, and that is why Mbappé’s message carries additional weight. According to data from the French Football Federation, Deschamps was appointed head coach on 9 July 2012, after which he became the longest-serving head coach in the history of the French national team. As a player, he was captain of the team that won the World Cup in 1998, and as head coach he led France to the title in Russia in 2018. In his biography, the FFF also lists the Euro 2016 final, the 2022 World Cup final, and the fact that he is one of the few people in football history to have been world champions both as a player and as a head coach. Precisely because of that, his departure does not represent only a change on the bench, but the end of one of the most successful national-team eras in modern European football.
Why Italy became part of the story
The Italian national team is currently going through another deep crisis of results and management. According to an announcement by the Italian Football Federation, the FIGC and Gennaro Ivan Gattuso agreed at the beginning of April 2026 to terminate the contract by mutual consent after Italy failed to achieve its objective in qualifying. In his farewell statement, Gattuso said that, “with a heavy heart”, he believes his time on the national-team bench is over because the objective was not achieved. The Italian federation thanked him and his coaching staff for their professionalism, dedication and passion, but this opened a new period of searching for a permanent solution for the Azzurri bench.
According to the FIGC, Italy were temporarily led in June friendly matches against Luxembourg and Greece by Silvio Baldini, the head coach of the Italy Under-21 national team. The federation announced that Baldini had taken charge of the senior team for those two matches, and the Italians then, according to a FIGC report, recorded two 1:0 victories, both with goals by Pio Esposito. Although friendly matches are not a measure of final recovery, they showed the direction in which Italy is trying to turn toward younger players and a new cycle. In such a context, the name of a coach with Deschamps’s experience and authority naturally appears in media discussions, especially because he knows Italian football well.
Deschamps, according to Football Italia’s reporting on his press conference in May 2026, when asked about possibly taking over Italy, said that he “rules nothing out”, but also that at that moment the World Cup was the most important thing. In the same statement, he added that he is “available” and that everything will be seen after the tournament. That wording was not an official confirmation of negotiations with the FIGC, but it was enough to fuel speculation. Mbappé’s reaction therefore comes as a public, but friendly-toned, message to the man who gave him one of the key roles in the national team and who has remained a central figure in French football across multiple generations of players.
France enters the new campaign with a strong, but changed team
The French Football Federation announced that on 14 May 2026, on TF1, Deschamps presented a list of 26 players for the World Cup in the United States of America, Canada and Mexico. According to the FFF, the national team is based in Boston, and in Group I it plays against Senegal, Iraq and Norway. In its official schedule announcement, the FFF states that France will play its first match on 16 June against Senegal at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, then on 22 June against Iraq in Philadelphia, and on 26 June against Norway in Foxborough. FIFA also states in its official Group I overview that the two-time world champions will play against Senegal, Iraq and Norway.
The team Deschamps is taking to his final tournament combines the experience of world champions and a new generation. According to the FFF’s statistical overview, Kylian Mbappé was, at the time the list was announced, the most experienced player and the top scorer among those called up, with 96 appearances and 56 goals for the national team. The French federation also states that the squad includes four world champions from 2018: Lucas Hernandez, N'Golo Kanté, Ousmane Dembélé and Mbappé. At the same time, the list includes a number of younger players, among them Rayan Cherki, Désiré Doué, Michael Olise, Warren Zaïre-Emery and others, showing that Deschamps is ending his tenure with a team that is not only a continuation of the old core, but also a bridge toward the next cycle.
This very combination is one of the reasons why Deschamps’s departure is a sensitive topic. Under his leadership, France was often criticised for its pragmatic style of play, but the results remained exceptionally strong. According to the FFF, Deschamps led the national team to the quarter-finals of the 2014 World Cup, the Euro 2016 final, the world title in 2018 and the 2022 World Cup final. In May, according to the FFF’s official summary, the head coach spoke about a “special emotion” because he is aware that this is his final list, but stressed that the most important thing is what comes next and that the energy is directed toward the World Cup. Mbappé therefore views his farewell through a sporting objective: trying to end the era with another major result.
Mbappé’s message also reveals the captain’s relationship with the head coach
Mbappé is captain of the national team in a period in which France has gradually changed after the departure of part of the older generation. Back in 2023, the FFF announced that Deschamps described the decision about his captaincy as logical and natural, with the message that this status must not be an additional burden for the player. Since then, Mbappé has become the most recognisable face of the French national team, but also one of the voices that publicly shape the atmosphere around the team. That is why his statement about Deschamps is not only a comment on the head coach’s future job, but also public testimony about the relationship between captain and coach ahead of a tournament in which both carry great expectations.
There is also a generational dimension to that relationship. Deschamps took over France after a turbulent period and over the years built a national team that regularly reached the closing stages of major competitions. Mbappé grew within precisely that system in the senior national team, from a young forward into captain and the main bearer of the team’s play. His message that Deschamps should not lead another national team can therefore be read as emotional, but also as strategic: he wants the focus to remain on the final tournament together, not on speculation that could follow the head coach after the competition.
On the other hand, Deschamps has not closed the door to a future job. According to available information, there is no official confirmation that he has spoken with the Italian Football Federation about taking over the Azzurri, nor has the FIGC announced the name of a permanent head coach for the next cycle. After Gattuso’s departure and Baldini’s temporary mandate, the Italian federation has room for a new decision, and Deschamps’s experience in Juventus and international football makes him a logical subject of speculation. Still, while the World Cup is underway, any such story remains in the realm of possibility, not a confirmed outcome.
A farewell already being played under the microscope
France enters the tournament as a national team that reached the final in the previous two editions of the World Cup, and Deschamps as a head coach who can further strengthen an already built legacy. In its official materials for Group I, FIFA recalls France’s status as a two-time world champion, while the FFF emphasises that this is the fourth World Cup Deschamps is leading from the France bench. For Mbappé, who according to FFF data was already close to the national team’s all-time scoring record, the tournament also has a personal dimension. But his latest statement shows that the story is not only about individual records, but also about the way one successful era comes to an end.
Mbappé’s public pressure on Deschamps should not be understood as a conflict, but as part of the broader emotional backdrop around the French national team. The captain said he wants his head coach to leave with a major result and that, at least in international football, he does not imagine him in anyone else’s colours. Italy is the strongest possible symbolic example in that story: a football power, currently without a stable long-term solution on the bench, but also a country where Deschamps has a serious playing and coaching past. Precisely because of that, the statement resonates more than the usual captain’s support for a head coach.
Until the end of the World Cup, the question of what Deschamps will do after France will remain open. What has been officially confirmed is that his mandate ends after the tournament, that France plays in Group I against Senegal, Iraq and Norway, and that Italy is looking for a new direction after failing in qualifying. Everything else remains for now in the realm of media speculation and personal wishes. Mbappé stated his wish clearly: he wants Deschamps’s farewell from international football to be French, victorious and without continuation on the bench of another nation.
Sources:
- SoccerNews / Stats Perform – report on Mbappé’s statements to M6 and his reaction to the possibility of Deschamps taking over Italy (link)
- Football Italia – report on Deschamps’s statement that he does not rule out the possibility of taking over Italy after the World Cup (link)
- RTÉ / Reuters – confirmation that Deschamps will leave the France bench after the 2026 World Cup (link)
- Fédération Française de Football – official list of 26 French internationals for the 2026 World Cup and basic information about preparations (link)
- Fédération Française de Football – statistical overview of the French list for the 2026 World Cup (link)
- Fédération Française de Football – biography of Didier Deschamps and overview of the most important results with France (link)
- FIFA – official overview of Group I of the 2026 World Cup with France, Senegal, Iraq and Norway (link)
- FIGC – official announcement on the mutual termination of Gennaro Gattuso’s contract with the Italian national team (link)
- FIGC – official announcement that Silvio Baldini temporarily led Italy in June friendly matches (link)