Zinedine Zidane could have ended up on the Belgium bench rather than managing France. According to La DH/Les Sports+, Vincent Mannaert had made the Frenchman his number-one choice to succeed Domenico Tedesco at the start of 2025. But Zizou already had a very clear plan in mind: wait for the France job.
Fate is fate. Just hours before Belgium face France in the Nations League, the story has an intriguing twist. Zidane will take on the Red Devils as France manager, even though he could have been in charge of the Belgian national team instead.
Zidane was Belgium’s number-one choice
After Domenico Tedesco left in January 2025, the Belgian Football Federation began searching for a new manager. According to La DH/Les Sports+, sporting director Vincent Mannaert had an especially prestigious priority: Zidane. Mannaert actually contacted the former Real Madrid coach, having already been impressed by him several years earlier during a visit to Club Brugge in 2015. However, Zidane quickly made it clear that he was not interested, not because he did not want to manage a national team, but because only one job truly appealed to him: France. The former number 10 was waiting to succeed Didier Deschamps and did not want to jeopardise that possibility by taking charge of another country.
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Following Zidane’s refusal, Belgium turned to another French coach. Rudi Garcia was eventually appointed manager of the Red Devils with the task of leading the team through to the 2026 World Cup. The story now provides a remarkable twist: a little over a year after Belgium’s approach, Zidane is indeed an international manager, but on the bench he had been waiting for.
On Monday, he will face the very team he could have coached. The scenario might therefore have been completely different: had Zidane not been determined to wait for the France job, the 1998 World Cup winner could perhaps have been leading Belgium against Les Bleus in the Nations League.
