Deschamps linked with Turkey job, but Nagelsmann also in the running

Didier Deschamps, on sabbatical after fourteen years on the France bench, sees his name circulating insistently from the Turkish Football Federation. According to Turkish daily Hürriyet, the former France manager is among the foreign profiles being studied to take charge of the crescent-and-star selection.

Yet the lead is not new. Le Figaro revealed last summer that Turkey had already approached Deschamps, 57, to replace Vincenzo Montella. The coach, 2018 World Cup winner and 2022 finalist, declined, preferring to rest for several months before considering a new project next summer.

Montella was therefore retained, but four consecutive defeats in the Nations League — against France, twice against Italy and against Belgium — hastened his departure. Arda Turan, seen as the natural successor, remains unavailable for now: the former midfielder is in position at Shakhtar Donetsk, and the Ukrainian club refuses to release its coach without compensation.

In this context, Hürriyet cites three foreign names: Deschamps, Julian Nagelsmann — former coach of Leipzig and Bayern, Germany manager at the last World Cup — and Portuguese Vitor Pereira, double champion of Portugal with FC Porto and already passed through Fenerbahçe in 2015-2016 then in 2021.

The Deschamps hypothesis remains fragile nonetheless. Turkey, which does not belong to the first circle of European nations, still has to play a Nations League match against Zinédine Zidane’s France on 15 November in Bordeaux — which would make any imminent appointment particularly delicate. Any possible commitment by “La Dèche” on the Bosphorus could therefore only happen, at the earliest, at the end of this international window.