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Legends

Didier Deschamps: An identity forged in Ligue 1 McDonald's

With France on the precipice of reaching their third World Cup final in as many tournaments, the Ligue 1 McDonald's team takes a moment to look back on Didier Deschamps' time on the benches of AS Monaco and Marseille.
E. DEVIN
Published on 07/14/2026 at 00:30
3-minute read
Didier Deschamps during his time on the bench at AS Monaco

With France on the precipice of reaching their third World Cup final in as many tournaments, the Ligue 1 McDonald's team takes a moment to look back on Didier Deschamps' time on the benches of AS Monaco and Marseille.

A quickfire start to life on the bench

With just two more matches left in his time in charge of France, a run that's lasted some 14 years, there's no question that Didier Deschamps has had a rather illustrious career on the bench. As it nears its end, no matter the outcome, the team here at Ligue 1 McDonald's takes a closer look at his emergence as a top-tier manager and how his time in the French top flight became a springboard to success of the highest order.

Born in Bayonne, Deschamps broke into first-team football with FC Nantes as a prosaic midfielder, winning his first cap for France while still with Les Canaris. A big-money move to Marseille was then followed by spells at Chelsea and Juventus before he retired aged just 32 in 2001, having won every honor possible for club and country. 

Just weeks after announcing his retirement from playing, he took the reigns at AS Monaco, following Claude Puel. Continuing on from Puel's philosophy of giving young players chances, he was instrumental in seeing the likes of Patrice Evra, Jérôme Rothen and Shabani Nonda reach the heights. Despite winning the Coupe de la Ligue in his second season, and reaching the Champions League final in the following campaign, a falling-out with the club's hierarchy saw his reign in the Principality come to an end. 

Restoring Marseille to greatness

After a brief and unsuccessful sojourn on the bench at the Stadio delle Alpi the following season, Deschamps took a spell away from the game before returning to first team management with another of his former clubs, Olympique de Marseille. The it team of the 1990s, l'OM had fallen on hard times and were struggling to get a foothold domestically, with Lyon running the show both in the top flight and impressing in Europe.

Under Deschamps, though, that all changed. Relying, as he had at Monaco, on young talent like André Ayew, Mathieu Valbuena and Hatem Ben Arfa, he was a smash success, winning the league for the first time in nearly twenty years in his first season in charge and adding three Coupe de la Ligue titles in a row. After a 2011/12 season that saw the club reach the Champions League quarterfinals but only finish tenth in the league, Deschamps joined France looking to improve both his and country's reputation, and has done all of that and more, continuing to build with young players to no small amount of success.  

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