Didier Deschamps

Didier Deschamps

Personal information
Full name	Didier Claude Deschamps
Date of birth	15 October 1968 (1968-10-15) (age 42)
Place of birth	Bayonne, France
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club	Marseille (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1985–1989	Nantes	110	(3)
1989–1990	Marseille	17	(1)
1990–1991	Bordeaux	37	(3)
1991–1994	Marseille	106	(5)
1994–1999	Juventus	124	(4)
1999–2000	Chelsea	27	(0)
2000–2001	Valencia	13	(0)
Total		434	(16)
National team
1989–2000	France	103	(4)
Teams managed
2001–2005	Monaco
2006–2007	Juventus
2009–	Marseille
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Didier Claude Deschamps French pronunciation: [didje deˈʃɑ̃]; born 15 October 1968 in Bayonne) is a retired French footballer and current manager of Marseille. He played as a Defensive midfielder. As an international, he assisted France with victories in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. He is a first cousin of Nathalie Tauziat, the French tennis player who reached the Ladies' Final at Wimbledon eight days before Deschamps captained France to victory in the 1998 World Cup final against Brazil.

Club career

After a short passage at rugby in the Biarritz Olympique Deschamps started his football career at an amateur club, Aviron Bayonnais whilst still at school. His potential was spotted by scouts from Nantes, for whom he signed in April 1983. Deschamps made his league debut on 27 September 1985.

Transferred to Marseille in 1989, Deschamps spent a season with Bordeaux in 1990 before returning to Marseille. In this second spell with Marseille Deschamps gained his first honours. As well as winning two French league titles in 1991 and 1992, Deschamps was part of the Marseille team which became the first, (and so far only) French winners of the Champions League in 1993. He is the youngest captain ever to lead his team to the Champions League title which also made club and national teammate Fabien Barthez the youngest goalkeeper to win.

In 1994, Deschamps joined Juventus, with whom he won three Serie A titles, one Italian Cup, two Italian Supercups, his second Champions League title, and an Intercontinental Cup.

After Juventus, Deschamps spent a season in England with Chelsea, winning the FA Cup, and scoring once against Hertha Berlin in the Champions League.^[1] He finished his playing career in Spain, spending a season with Valencia, helping them to the 2001 UEFA Champions League Final, but he remained on the bench as they lost to Bayern Munich. He then retired in summer 2001, when he was only 32 years old.

International career

Receiving his first international call-up from Michel Platini in 1989 (on April 29 against Yugoslavia), Deschamps started his international career in what was a dark time for the French team as they failed to qualify for the World Cup in both 1990 and 1994.

When new team coach Aimé Jacquet began to rebuild the team for Euro 1996, he initially selected Eric Cantona as captain. After Cantona earned a year-long suspension in January 1995, the make-up of the team changed dramatically, with veterans Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola being dropped in favour of younger players such as Zinedine Zidane. Deschamps, as one of the few remaining veterans, was chosen to lead what would later be called the "Golden Generation". He first captained France in 1996 in a friendly match against Germany as a warmup for Euro 96. During that tournament, held in England, he led them all the way to the semi-finals, their best finish in an international tournament since the 1986 World Cup.

In 1998, Deschamps captained France as they won 1998 World Cup on home soil in Paris, holding an integral role in the team. Propelled by the momentum of this triumph, Deschamps also captained France as they won Euro 2000, giving them the distinction of being the first national team to hold both the World Cup and Euro titles since West Germany did so in 1974. France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001–02.

Following the tournament Deschamps announced his retirement from international football, making his second last appearance in a ceremonial match against a FIFA XI in August 2000, which resulted in 5&ndasH;1 victory. His final appearance was against England. At the time of his retirement Deschamps held the record for the most appearances for France, though this has since been surpassed by Marcel Desailly, Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram. In total, Deschamps earned 103 caps and scored four goals. Deschamps was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Deschamps was once—derisively—described by Cantona as "the water-carrier"^[2] by which Cantona meant that Deschamps only existed to pass the ball to "more talented" players.

Managerial career

Monaco

After retiring as a player, he went into football management. He was the head coach of Monaco in France's Ligue 1, leading Monaco to the French League Cup title in 2002–03 and to its first UEFA Champions League final in 2004. He resigned on 19 September 2005 after a poor start to the season, and disagreement with club's president.

Juventus

On 10 July 2006, Deschamps was named head coach of Juventus. The club had just been relegated to Serie B after the 2006 Italian football scandal.

Deschamps' first game in charge of Juventus was highly successful when Juventus beat Alessandria 8–0. But poor results followed after Juventus was knocked out in the 3rd round of the Coppa Italia and the 1–1 draw at Rimini on the first day of the league season. But the following 3 games in which Juventus beat Vicenza 2–1, Crotone 0–3, and Modena 4–0 made it look like Deschamps had everything under control. Also, Deschamps helped Juventus to win their first competition since being relegated (due to the match fixing scandal) which was the Birra Moretti Cup in which Juventus beat Internazionale 1–0 and Napoli in a penalty shoot out. He led Juventus to its return to Serie A, which was confirmed on 19 May 2007 with a 5–1 away win at Arezzo. On 26 May, several media announced Deschamps had resigned as Juventus manager, following several clashes with the club management. This was however denied by Juventus itself a few hours later. Later that evening after the game against Mantova which confirmed Juve as Serie B champions, Deschamps confirmed to the media that he had indeed resigned. The news was then made official by Juventus a few hours later.

Marseille

On 5 May 2009, it was announced that Deschamps would be named manager of Marseille to the upcoming season which began on 1 July 2009.^[3][4] In his first season, he managed them to their first Ligue 1 title in 18 years.^[5] His success had seen the Marseille Manager linked to a return to Juventus F.C where former president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli urged the club to bring back Deschamps to replace Ciro Ferrara. Ferrara was eventually replaced by Alberto Zaccheroni.

On the 29th June 2010 Deschamps signed a contract extension that will keep him at Marseille until June 2012.^[6]

Career statistics

Honours

Player

• 1998 FIFA World Cup winner
• Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 1998^[7][8]
• Euro 2000 winner
• Champions League winner: 1993, 1996
• Intercontinental Cup winner: 1996
• European Super Cup winner: 1996
• Ligue 1 winner: 1990, 1992
• Serie A winner: 1995, 1997, 1998
• Coppa Italia winner: 1995
• Italian Super Cup winner: 1995, 1997
• FA Cup winner: 2000
• Youngest captain to lift the Champions League trophy

Manager

Monaco

• 1 × French League Cup: 2002–03
• 1 × UEFA Champions League Finalist: 2003–04

Juventus

• 1 × Serie B: 2006–07

Marseille

• 1 × French Ligue 1: 2009–10
• 1 × French League Cup: 2009–10

Notes

France Squad France squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Martini • 2 Amoros (c) • 3 Silvestre • 4 Petit • 5 Blanc • 6 Casoni • 7 Deschamps • 8 Sauzée • 9 Papin • 10 Fernández • 11 Perez • 12 Cocard • 13 Boli • 14 Durand • 15 Divert • 16 Vahirua • 17 Garde • 18 Cantona • 19 Rousset • 20 Angloma • Coach: Platini France squad – UEFA Euro 1996 semi-finalists 1 Lama • 2 Angloma • 3 Di Meco • 4 Leboeuf • 5 Blanc • 6 Guérin • 7 Deschamps (c) • 8 Desailly • 9 Djorkaeff • 10 Zidane • 11 Loko • 12 Lizarazu • 13 Dugarry • 14 Lamouchi • 15 Thuram • 16 Barthez • 17 Madar • 18 Pedros • 19 Karembeu • 20 Roche • 21 Martins • 22 Martini • Coach: Jacquet France squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup Winners (1st Title) 1 Lama • 2 Candela • 3 Lizarazu • 4 Vieira • 5 Blanc • 6 Djorkaeff • 7 Deschamps (c) • 8 Desailly • 9 Guivarc'h • 10 Zidane • 11 Pirès • 12 Henry • 13 Diomède • 14 Boghossian • 15 Thuram • 16 Barthez • 17 Petit • 18 Leboeuf • 19 Karembeu • 20 Trezeguet • 21 Dugarry • 22 Charbonnier • Coach: Jacquet France squad – UEFA Euro 2000 Winners (2nd title) 1 Lama • 2 Candela • 3 Lizarazu • 4 Vieira • 5 Blanc • 6 Djorkaeff • 7 Deschamps (c) • 8 Desailly • 9 Anelka • 10 Zidane • 11 Pirès • 12 Henry • 13 Wiltord • 14 Micoud • 15 Thuram • 16 Barthez • 17 Petit • 18 Leboeuf • 19 Karembeu • 20 Trezeguet • 21 Dugarry • 22 Ramé • Coach: Lemerre