Cheered by the crowd, Deschamps receives the tribute the FFF never gave him

Didier Deschamps did not need a football stadium to gauge his popularity. On Wednesday evening, at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, the former France manager was given a standing ovation by the crowd attending Céline Dion’s concert — and was overwhelmed with selfie requests from the moment he arrived.

The 57-year-old Basque, accompanied by his wife, attended the fifth date of the Canadian singer’s Paris tour. According to Le Parisien, crowds formed around the venue as every spectator wanted to capture a moment with « DD ».

The reception contrasts sharply with the institutional silence surrounding his departure. The French Football Federation has planned no official tribute for the man who led the France team for fourteen years, won the 2018 World Cup in Russia and took the Bleus to the Euro 2016 final. The final chapter of his reign closed on 18 July in the New York suburbs, with a 4-6 defeat to England in the third-place playoff of the 2026 World Cup.

Since then, French football has been swept up in « Zidane fever »: the former number 10 has taken the reins of the national team, relegating Deschamps to the media shadows. Yet the popularity of the former captain of the 1998 world champions with the general public has never truly suffered from criticism of his style of play, deemed too pragmatic.

Deschamps has not hidden, in recent months, his intention to return to work. National team manager of a major nation or head coach of a top European club: both paths remain open. Offers are expected in the coming months for the man who, in the meantime, finds himself more applauded in a concert hall than in the corridors of the FFF.