Deschamps wins World Cup as player, manager

CAIRO – 17 July 2018: France national team's manager, Didier Deschamps, led his team to achieve their second World Cup title on Sunday night.

Deschamps, who was the first French to lift the World Cup title as the captain of the 1998 team, wrote a new chapter in football history after this achievement.

Deschamps is the third footballer to achieve the World Cup as a player and a manager after Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer.

Zagallo won the World Cup title in 1958 and 1962 as a player before achieving the title in 1970 as the national team manager.

Beckenbauer captained the German team when they won the title in 1974 at home defeating Netherlands 2-1 at the final before winning the World Cup in 1990 as the German national team manager.

French Football Federation assigned Deschamps as national team manager in 2012 to rebuild a new generation for France after their failure at the 2008 and 2012 UEFA EURO and the 2010 World Cup.

Deschamps needed two years to build a squad of young players like Antoine Griezmann, Raphaël Varane, Paul Pogba and Olivier Giroud.

France had a stunning run at the 2014 World Cup but was eliminated from the quarter finals, losing to the tournament champions, Germany.

Two years later, he was so close to win the EUROS at home like he did as a player in 2000 but they lost the final 1-0 to Portugal.

Deschamps lead France to put an end to 20 years of setbacks on the international level when they defeated Croatia 4-2 on Sunday to win the title.