Didier Deschamps biography: Boss and Footballer

Didier Deschamps biography

French football player and Boss

Soccer player

Didier Deschamps

born 15 October 1968 in Bayonne

Bayonne is a city and commune of southwest France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département, of which it is a sous-préfecture.

A former French football player who captained France to victories in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000. He has been head coach of Juventus FC.

Career

Nantes 111 (4)
Olympique Marseille 17 (1)
Girondins Bordeaux 29 (3)
Olympique Marseille 106 (5)
Juventus .124 (4)
Chelsea F.C 27 (0)
Valencia 8 (0)

France 103 (4)

Teams managed

AS Monaco
Juventus

Deschamps started a football career at an amateur club, Aviron Bayonnais whilst at school. His potential was spotted by scouts from Nantes, for whom he signed in April 83. Deschamps made his league debut on 27 September 1985.

Transferred to Olympique Marseille in 1989, Deschamps spent a season with Bordeaux in 1990 before returning to Marseille. In a 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 a Marseille team which became the first, French winners of the UEFA Champions League in 1993, which they were stripped off. He is the youngest captain to lead a team to the Champions League title, which also made club and national teammate Fabien Barthez the youngest keeper to win.

In 1994, Deschamps joined Italian giants Juventus, with whom he won 3 Serie A titles, one Italian Cup, two Italian Supercups, a second Champions League title, and an Intercontinental Cup.

After Juventus, Deschamps spent a season in England with Chelsea, winning a FA Cup. He finished his playing career in Spain, spending a season with Valencia and winning La Liga before retiring in 2001.

International career
Receiving a first international call up from Michel Platini in 1989 (against Yugoslavia), Deschamps started his international career in what was a sore time for the French, failing to qualify for the World Cup in both 1990 and 1994.

When new team coach Aimé Jacquet began to rebuild the team for Euro 96, he initially selected Man Utd star Éric Cantona as captain. After Cantona earned a year long suspension in January 1995, the makeup of the team changed, with veterans Cantona, Jean-Pierre Papin, and David Ginola being dropped in favour of younger players such as Zinedine Zidane. Deschamps, one of the few remaining veterans, was chosen to lead what would be later be called the Golden Generation. He first captained France in 1996 in a friendly match V Germany as a warm up for Euro 96. During the tournament, in England, he led them all the way to the semi finals, their best finish in an international tournament since the 86 FIFA World Cup.

In 1998, Deschamps captained France as they won 1998 FIFA World Cup on home soil, performing a integral role in the team. Propelled by the momentum of the triumph, Deschamps also captained France as they won Euro 2000, giving a 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 2001-2002.

Following the tournament Deschamps announced his retirement from international football, making his final appearance in a ceremonial match against a FIFA XI in August 2000. At the time of his retirement Deschamps held the record of the most appearances for France, though this has 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 footballers in March 2004.

Deschamps was once, derisively, described by Cantona as, the water carrier, by which Cantona meant Deschamps existed to pass a ball to more talented players. This description masked a valuable player for a number of top teams.

Coaching
After retiring as a player, he went to football management. He was a head coach of AS Monaco in France's Ligue 1, leading Monaco 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.

On July 10, 2006, Deschamps was named head coach of Juventus, after Fabio Capello resigned in the wake of the match fixing scandal. The club were demoted to Serie B.

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 in the Coppa Italia and the 1-1 draw at Rimini on the first day of the season. But the following 3 games which Juventus beat Vicenza 2-1, Crotone 0-3 and Modena 4-0 made it look like Deschamps had everything under control. Also Deschamps has helped Juventus to win their first competition since being relegated (due to the match fixing scandal) which was the Birra Moretti cup where Juventus beat Inter Milan 1-0 and Napoli in a penalty shoot out. The side reached the top of the division, winning promotion to show an ability to cope on a 9 point deduction.

Honours
1998 FIFA World Cup winner
Euro 2000 winner
Champions League winner 1993, 1996
Intercontinental cup winner 1996
European Super Cup winner 1996
Ligue 1 winner 1991, 1992, 1993
Serie A winner 1995, 1997, 1998

Serie B as a Boss 2007
Italian Cup winner 1995
Italian Super Cup winner 1995, 1997
F.A. Cup winner 2000

Dider Deshamps Didear Deschaemps Ddier Deschmps

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