Mbappe's wish: Deschamps should not be made the coach of Italy

Kylian Mbappe has expressed his desire to Didier Deschamps not to coach another national team after the World Cup, particularly warning about Italy's coaching, which he described as 'terrible'. Deschamps announced last year that the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico would be his last with Les Bleus.

Deschamps, who captained the team that won the World Cup in 1998 and the Euro Cup in 2000, has been France coach since 2012 and has managed 115 wins, 35 draws and 29 losses from 179 matches. His biggest coaching moment was the 4–2 win against Croatia in the 2018 World Cup final. France also finished runners-up under him in 2022 and lost the Euro Cup final in 2016.

Deschamps is one of three people to have won the World Cup as a player and head coach, the others being Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer. The 2026 World Cup will be his fourth, while Carlos Alberto Parreira (six) and Bora Milutinovic (five) have coached more World Cups.

While Zinedine Zidane is being tipped to be Deschamps' successor, Mbappe believes Deschamps should return to club football. "The best way to show respect to him is to win, because he loves to win. We will make sure his recent World Cup is the best one," Mbappe told French media.

"Hopefully this will be his last, because I don't want him to coach another [national] team."

Italy are currently searching for a new head coach, having sacked Gennaro Gattuso in March after failing to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup. Italy lost on penalties against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the UEFA qualification play-off final and are the first former champions to miss the World Cup in three consecutive editions. Antonio Conte is the favorite for the role, having previously led the Azzurri to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, but Deschamps also has coaching experience in Italy, where he played and coached for Juventus.

He brought the Bianconeri back to Serie A in his only season in 2006–07, after Fabio Capello resigned following the Calciopoli scandal and they were relegated to Serie B. But Mbappe wants Deschamps not to accept that job and said: "He said [that he could join Italy], it would be terrible. I'm putting pressure on him!"

France begin their World Cup campaign on Tuesday against Senegal, while their other Group I opponents are Iraq and Norway.