Thierry Henry's Path to France National Team Coach: Could He Succeed Zidane?

Thierry Henry has already had a taste of leading his country on home soil. At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, he dragged the host nation all the way to a final with Spain, only to watch extra-time rip the gold medal from his players’ grasp. Silver for Michael Olise and company. A tournament that hurt, but also hinted at something bigger.

Since hanging up his boots, Henry’s coaching path has zigzagged. A brief, bruising spell in the Monaco dugout. A return to MLS with Montreal Impact. A stint beside Roberto Martinez in the Belgium national team set-up, working with a generation many expected to conquer the world. Now, at 48, he has stepped back into punditry, weighing up his next move, waiting for the right offer rather than chasing any job that comes along.

One role will always carry a different weight: France.

Didier Deschamps is walking away after 14 years in charge, a reign that brought the 2018 World Cup, a UEFA Nations League title and a relentless stream of semi-finals and finals. Into that space steps Zinedine Zidane, Ballon d’Or winner, three-time Champions League–winning coach with Real Madrid, and now about to take on his first job outside the Bernabeu.

This is not a rebuild. It is a handover of power.

Zidane inherits a squad loaded with star quality: Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and a supporting cast that most international coaches can only dream of. The expectation is simple and brutal: keep France at the top of the game and, crucially, keep winning trophies.

Somewhere in the background, the class of ’98 lingers. Deschamps, then Zidane. Could Henry be next?

Jeremie Aliadiere, another member of that French golden era and part of Arsenal’s “Invincibles”, sees the path clearly. Speaking to GOAL, in association with ToonieBet, he did not hesitate when asked if Henry could one day take the national job.

“Why not? I'm sure Thierry will be delighted to get the job,” he said. For Aliadiere, Henry’s Olympic run underlined what the shirt means to him. “We've seen how patriotic he is and how much he loves France. We saw him during the Olympic Games in 2024 as well. He's had a great tournament there. I'm sure that'll be in the back of his mind and he will love to get the opportunity at some point.”

The complication, of course, is that the man stepping in now is Zidane. A figure who, in France, exists on a different plane.

“But I think Zidane in France is something different and now we've touched the gods. Zidane will always be Zidane,” Aliadiere said. His hope is straightforward: that Zidane succeeds, and that the story continues at the same dizzying level Deschamps reached. “As much as Deschamps didn't win this World Cup, he's still all the time going to semis, to finals, won in 2018. So you just think it's still going to be a challenge for Zidane to get over the line.”

The bar for Zidane is set absurdly high. With Real Madrid, he built a reputation as the man who delivers when the stakes are at their highest. With France, the demand is even sharper.

“Because the next step now really for Zidane, he has to win something,” Aliadiere stressed. “He can't just come and then do a semi-final or a quarter-finals. And we know how hard it is to win it. Only one team can.” He pointed to England’s recent near-misses as a warning: get close too often without lifting the trophy and patience frays, even with a talented group.

France, though, are not nearing the end of a cycle. They are right in the middle of a golden one.

Pressed on whether Les Bleus will stay among the favourites for European Championships and World Cups in the coming years, Aliadiere was emphatic. “Yeah, 100%. I think so.”

He circled back to Deschamps, whose record still underpins the current era. “As much as people might say that Didier Deschamps has only one World Cup, that is obviously more than a lot of anyone else. But you just think what he's done in terms of leading the team with such a great squad and great talent.”

Zidane, in Aliadiere’s eyes, is not taking on a broken project. Quite the opposite. “Zidane's going to come in and he hasn't got a lot to do really. Everything's already set for him to succeed.”

The depth is frightening. Established stars at their peak, and a wave of talent still waiting for their moment. Aliadiere reeled off names that hint at how long this cycle could run.

“You think a player like [Rayan] Cherki who couldn't get much minutes in there, he'll be in for two years, four years. You think about [Hugo] Ekitike who was injured before it. It's like the names that you've got and the talent you've got, I think Zidane now has just got to put his little magic on it and then make it work.”

So Henry waits, watching a fellow legend step into the job many in France feel he was born to take one day. Zidane now has the keys to a squad built to win immediately. If he adds more silver to an already glittering era, the class of ’98 will have stretched its influence across three coaching generations.

The question is no longer whether France can stay at the summit. It is who, among their greatest sons, will be the one still standing there when this extraordinary run finally begins to fade.