France head coach Didier Deschamps, who led Les Bleus to a World Cup win in 2018 and a final loss in 2022, did not take his place in the technical area for his team’s last group stage fixture at World Cup 2026.
Deschamps, who also won the World Cup as France’s captain and is managing his last matches with the national team before his contract runs out at the end of the current tournament, returned to France this week to attend the funeral of his mother.
“At this incredibly painful time, we wish the head coach great strength and assure him of everyone's support,” read a statement from the French Football Federation (FFF) on Tuesday.
Who is Guy Stephan?
The Norwegian staff presented Deschamps’ understudy with flowers before the game at Gillette Stadium. They were handed by Stale Solbakken to Guy Stephan, Deschamps’ friend and long-time assistant head coach, who is in temporary charge of Les Bleus in Deschamps’ absence.
Stephan, 12 years Deschamps’ senior at 69 years old, was a striker for Guingamp, Rennes, Le Havre and Orleans between 1976 and 1985. His playing career ended at Caen in 1987, cut short by a car accident.
When Deschamps lifted the European Championship trophy in Rotterdam in 2000, Stephan was the assistant manager to Roger Lemerre. After previous spells in the top job at Annecy, Lyon and Bordeaux, he was hired by Senegal in the aftermath of their shock World Cup win over Les Bleus in 2002.
Stephan’s association with Deschamps restarted in 2009. The former France skipper had returned to management after earlier stints with Monaco and Juventus, joining former club Marseille after Eric Gerets moved to Saudi Arabia.
The pair stayed attached when Deschamps took the national team job, going on to reach two World Cup finals, winning one, and the final of the European Championship in 2016.
In all, Deschamps and Stephan have worked together as head coach and assistant for 17 years. It’s been a combination that allowed France to thrive after the shambolic display the travelling party made of itself in South Africa at World Cup 2010.
“We understand each other,” Stephan told The Athletic this week. “We don’t even need to speak anymore. A glance is enough when we’re out on the pitch or at a training session; if something needs changing or tweaking, we just look at each other and – boom – it’s as if we’d actually spoken.”
France were ruthless in the first half as Stephan led them against Norway in the Group I decider in Boston.
Ousmane Dembele scored a wonderful quick-fire hat-trick to give Les Bleus a 3-1 lead before half time.
Stephan’s son, Julien, has been the head coach of Championship club Queens Park Rangers for a year and a day, having had two previous spells at Rennes either side of a couple of years in charge of Strasbourg.
