Serial winner Deschamps can lead France to Euro 2016 glory

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  • PARIS, France — Didier Deschamps does not like losing. During a distinguished career on the pitch and now in the dugout, he has been well accustomed to the taste of la victoire.

    On Sunday, the France coach has the opportunity to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy above his head for the second time. It is an achievement that would see him emulate Germany’s Berti Vogts, the only other man to have won the European Championship as player and manager.

    When France triumphed at Euro 2000, as when they secured World Cup glory two years earlier, Deschamps was their indefatigable captain. He experienced a victory over Sunday’s opponents Portugal in the semi-finals, before leading his side to a dramatic triumph over Italy.

    Deschamps was not a marauding match-winner for Les Bleus, no great entertainer. He was a thorn among roses. But despite being derided as a ‘water-carrier’ by Eric Cantona because of his limitations as a footballer, ‘trophy carrier’ is now perhaps a more accurate description of the decorated Deschamps.

    “He was not a beautiful player like Zinedine Zidane or Thierry Henry but he was always the leader,” Thomas Pitrel, of French football magazine So Foot, explains. “He thinks about only one thing and that is to win.

    “He was not considered a very good player but he won everything and it is the same as a coach.  He can be seen as boring but he does everything with one idea and the French public has more belief in him with every game that passes. Winning is the only thing he thinks about. It is the same philosophy now as then.”

    France’s Euro 2000 winners certainly exhibited Deschamps’ infectious never-say-die spirit in the final – fighting back from 1-0 down as a late equaliser from Sylvain Wiltord was followed by David Trezeguet’s memorable golden goal.

    His 2016 vintage appear equally incompatible with failure. At this European Championship France have had to come from behind to beat Ireland, and scored three goals in the 89thminute or later. Against Germany it was evident, too. They may have been comprehensively outplayed, but it was France and not the world champions who found a way to win.

    Deschamps is about fight not flamboyance, pragmatism over personality. It is an approach that has served him well. As a player he won the Champions League twice and claimed five league titles during spells with Marseille and Juventus, while in his early throes as a coach he took a limited Monaco side to the Champions League final – defeat coming to another unrelenting winner in Jose Mourinho and Porto.

    DESCHAMPS: MANAGERIAL HONOURS

    • Coupe de la Ligue: 2003 (Monaco); 2010, 2011, 2012 (Marseille)
    • Serie B: 2006-07 (Juventus)
    • Ligue 1: 2009-10 (Marseille)

    Next came a return to Juventus, whom he guided to the Serie B title in the wake of post-Calciopoli implosion and demotion, before another former club were inspired – Marseille taken to a first Ligue 1 title since Deschamps himself celebrated winning the league as a player almost two decades earlier.

    Now, though, comes the biggest challenge of his coaching career. He has helped transform the French national team, the infamous transgressions of the 2010 World Cup firmly forgotten. Laurent Blanc deserves some credit here for helping facilitate change, Deschamps’ World Cup-winning team-mate fighting the post-South Africa fires and creating a solid foundation from which his successor could build.

    But make no mistake, this team belongs to Deschamps. Though crowd-pleasing players like Dimitri Payet and Antoine Griezmann may suggest otherwise, it is a team constructed in the coach’s image. Deschamps has regularly heralded the ‘character’ of his players throughout this tournament and if they demonstrate that determination again against Portugal, the remarkable scenes that their boss experienced on the Champs d’Elysees when France won the World Cup on home soil in 1998 may well be repeated.

    Expectation is now at fever pitch in Paris, with fans and media alike now believing that this version of Les Bleus has the mental capacity to emerge victorious. But one man has remained a picture of cool.

    “There’s no tension,” Deschamps said to a packed press conference in Paris ahead of the final. “I don’t feel any pressure, I don’t have any stress. There’s adrenaline though and adrenaline is good. Clearly it’s a very important time in my career.

    “But when I took this role as head coach of the national team it was not just to take part in these competitions. It was to get to matches like this. It was to win.”

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