Kylian Mbappé's Plea for Didier Deschamps' Last World Cup
Kylian Mbappé doesn’t want to face Didier Deschamps. Not now, not ever.
As France prepare for one last World Cup under their long-serving coach, the captain has stepped beyond the usual platitudes and into something closer to a plea. Deschamps is leaving the French setup after the 2026 tournament, but what comes next for him has become an unexpected subplot inside Les Bleus’ camp — and Mbappé is trying to shape the ending.
Deschamps has stayed deliberately vague about his future. He has made it clear he is not closing any doors, whether that means a return to the weekly grind of club football or another crack at international management somewhere else. He has options. He knows it. Everyone else does too.
Mbappé, though, is determined that those options do not lead to him lining up against the man who helped turn him into a world champion.
Speaking to M6, the France captain laid out the simplest tribute he can imagine for his mentor: “The best way to pay tribute to him is to win because he loves to win. We're going to make sure he has the best of the recent World Cups. Hopefully, it will be his last because I hope he doesn't play for another team.”
That last line said more than any diplomatic statement ever could. Mbappé doesn’t just want to win for Deschamps; he wants to close the book on his international coaching career with France, full stop.
And he’s not hiding how far he’s willing to go. “I'm putting pressure on him,” he admitted, a rare glimpse into the dynamics between superstar forward and veteran coach. This is not a distant, formal relationship. It’s personal, layered with a decade of shared battles, triumphs, and one agonising near-miss in the 2022 final.
The rumours, inevitably, have been circling. Deschamps’ name keeps surfacing around the Italy job, a role that seems tailor-made on paper. He knows the country, knows the culture, knows the demands. His years at Juventus, as player and manager, gave him deep roots in Italian football. For a proud football nation trying to rebuild after missing multiple World Cups and enduring a period of historic turbulence, a World Cup-winning coach with that pedigree is a tempting solution.
Mbappé wants no part of that scenario.
Asked directly about Deschamps being linked to the Azzurri bench, he didn’t bother dressing up his answer. “They said Italy, that would be awful,” he said. No smile. No softening. Just a blunt verdict from a captain who has no interest in shaking hands with Deschamps in an opposing technical area.
For now, that remains hypothetical. Inside the French camp, the conversation always circles back to the same target: one more World Cup. After the heartbreak of 2022, when France came within a penalty shootout of retaining their crown, this 2026 campaign has been framed as both a shot at redemption and a farewell tour.
Deschamps’ Final Chapter
Deschamps’ final chapter with France will be written across North America, and it will not be an easy one. He must guide a squad in transition through one last tournament and try to squeeze every drop out of a group that has already gone deep into major competitions under his watch. “Maximum results” is the expectation, not the aspiration.
The path is already set. Les Bleus open their World Cup against Senegal in Group I on June 16, a fixture loaded with danger against a physically imposing and tactically sharp side. Six days later comes Iraq on June 22, the sort of match France will be expected to control but cannot afford to sleepwalk through. Then Norway on June 26, a team capable of unsettling anyone on their day.
Each of those dates carries weight. Every game is another step towards the end of an era that began in 2012 and reshaped French football. Deschamps has already delivered a World Cup, a Euros final, a Nations League title, and a consistent presence at the sharp end of tournaments. Now he is chasing something more elusive: the perfect goodbye.
Mbappé’s stance tells you how much that matters inside the dressing room. This is not just about medals or records. It’s about ensuring that when Deschamps finally walks away from the France bench, he does so without ever having to scheme against the players he raised on the biggest stage.
Whether the rest of the football world lets that happen is another story.
