Zinédine Zidane used the first squad announcement of his tenure as France coach to signal change without declaring a rupture. On September 18, the former World Cup winner named a 23-man group containing five uncapped players, retained Kylian Mbappé as captain and left out several familiar names as Les Bleus prepared to begin the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League. The selection is Zidane's first concrete act in a job that has carried an unusual weight of expectation for years: he inherits a team that won the 2018 World Cup, reached the 2022 final and again reached the semi-finals in 2026, yet now has to convert continuity at the highest level into a new cycle before Euro 2028 and the 2030 World Cup.
A first list built around continuity, not revolution
The headline novelty is obvious. Goalkeeper Guillaume Restes, defender Jérémy Jacquet, versatile Inter Milan player Andy Diouf, Como midfielder Lucas Da Cunha and Rennes forward Esteban Lepaul have all received their first senior France call-ups. Yet the architecture of the squad remains recognisably French and recognisably elite. Mike Maignan is still the senior goalkeeper. Dayot Upamecano, Jules Koundé and Ibrahima Konaté remain central figures in defence. Eduardo Camavinga, Adrien Rabiot and Warren Zaïre-Emery provide established options in midfield, while a forward line featuring Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, Désiré Doué and Bradley Barcola gives Zidane immediate access to some of Europe's most dangerous attacking players.
That balance matters because Zidane has explicitly resisted the idea that his arrival marks a break with everything Didier Deschamps built over 14 years. Speaking at the squad announcement, he described his work as a continuation rather than a repudiation of the past. That is more than diplomatic language. France do not require the kind of total reconstruction normally associated with a national team that has fallen behind. Their recent record is the opposite: world champions in 2018, finalists in 2022 and semi-finalists at the 2026 tournament in North America. The challenge is therefore to renew an already powerful team without destabilising the competitive culture that made it successful.
Zidane's first list can be read in that light. He has not swept away the senior core, nor has he treated reputation as sufficient for automatic selection. The five newcomers are not symbolic inclusions added at the edge of a settled group; each represents a different area where France can widen its options. Restes adds another young goalkeeper. Jacquet deepens a position that has often been one of France's great strengths. Diouf gives tactical flexibility. Da Cunha brings a technical midfield profile developed in Serie A. Lepaul adds a central scoring option after a highly productive domestic season. The choices suggest renovation by competition rather than renovation by decree.
Mbappé keeps the armband
The clearest decision of Zidane's first week as selector was to leave the captaincy with Kylian Mbappé. The Real Madrid forward remains the most prominent player in the squad and, according to Reuters, France's all-time leading scorer with 66 international goals. AFP reported that he scored 10 goals at the 2026 World Cup, finishing as the tournament's leading scorer even though France were eliminated by eventual champions Spain in the semi-finals. Retaining him as captain therefore preserves an important line of continuity between the Deschamps era and the new regime.
The choice is also tactically significant because Zidane made clear that he does not see Mbappé as locked into one attacking position. He said the captain can operate across the front line and indicated a preference for using him from the left as one possible option. That immediately opens questions that will shape the first Nations League window: whether France will build around a fixed centre-forward, whether Mbappé will be given freedom to start wide and attack central space, and how players such as Dembele, Olise, Doue, Barcola and Lepaul can be combined without reducing the team's balance.
For a national-team coach, the captaincy is rarely only ceremonial. It is also a statement about the internal hierarchy of a squad in which several players are established leaders at major European clubs. By confirming Mbappé immediately, Zidane has removed one potential source of uncertainty before his first training camp. That matters because the opening schedule is unusually demanding. France begin away to Turkey on September 25, then travel to Belgium three days later, before hosting Italy on October 2 and Belgium again on October 5. There is little time for a new coach to establish both tactical principles and a new leadership structure at once.
Five newcomers, five different arguments
Jérémy Jacquet may attract the greatest attention among the uncapped players because the 21-year-old centre-back has entered the squad after an impressive start to life at Liverpool. AFP reported that Zidane had followed Jacquet for a long time and noted a personal point of familiarity: Jacquet played at youth level with Zidane's son Elyaz. The relevant sporting case, however, is current form. France have no shortage of centre-backs, so a first call-up in that position is meaningful. Jacquet joins a defensive group that includes Upamecano, Konate, Kounde, Pierre Kalulu and Maxence Lacroix, meaning his selection is a competitive test rather than a guaranteed route into the starting eleven.
Guillaume Restes arrives from Toulouse as the third goalkeeper alongside Maignan and Robin Risser. Goalkeeper selection can look less dramatic than a change in the forward line, but it often reveals how a new coach thinks about succession planning. National teams have limited training time, and introducing a younger goalkeeper before there is an emergency can be more valuable than waiting until a senior option is unavailable. Restes now has an opportunity to work inside the senior structure and to be evaluated in the same environment as the players competing for immediate minutes.
Andy Diouf offers a different kind of value. AFP described him as capable of playing in midfield or at wing-back, and his inclusion gives Zidane a player who can help alter the shape of the team without forcing a substitution purely for tactical reasons. That kind of versatility is increasingly valuable in international football, where tournament squads are limited and matches can require rapid changes between possession structures and defensive shapes. Whether Zidane sees Diouf primarily as a defender, midfielder or hybrid option will become clearer only when France train and play, but the call-up itself expands the coach's tactical vocabulary.
Lucas Da Cunha's selection rewards his development at Como and gives France another technically oriented midfielder. The competition there is severe. Camavinga, Rabiot, Manu Koné, Zaïre-Emery and Rayan Cherki are all in the group, while Aurelien Tchouaméni is absent after being eased back following injury. Da Cunha therefore enters an environment in which every training session becomes an audition for a role that may not yet be defined. His presence is a reminder that France's depth allows the national team to select from players performing in different leagues and tactical systems rather than drawing from a single domestic core.
Esteban Lepaul's inclusion is perhaps the most straightforward reward for output. AFP described the Rennes striker as Ligue 1's leading scorer last season. For Zidane, that form provides a chance to test a specialist central forward at a moment when the coach is also considering how best to deploy Mbappé. Lepaul does not have to displace one of the established stars to make the call worthwhile. If he can give France a reliable reference point through the middle, attack crosses, occupy centre-backs and create space for runners, he may offer a profile that changes the geometry of the attack even when he is not the most celebrated name on the team sheet.
The absences matter too
First squads are defined as much by who is missing as by who is present. Tchouaméni has not been selected while being brought back carefully after injury, and Marcus Thuram is also absent. William Saliba, another major figure in the recent France cycle, is injured. AFP reported that Zidane said some omissions reflected injuries or insufficient playing time and stressed that extensive work had gone into the list since his appointment on July 28. That framing is important: the coach is presenting selection as dynamic, not permanent.
There is a practical reason to avoid over-interpreting September omissions. The 2026-27 season is still young, players are at different stages of fitness and the Nations League window arrives soon after the World Cup summer. A player left out now may return in October or November; a newcomer selected now may find himself outside the next group. The intensity of France's talent pool makes that instability almost inevitable. It also gives Zidane leverage. When a national team contains Champions League-level players in nearly every position, the threat of losing a place can reinforce standards even when the coach is not making public examples of individuals.
That said, selection decisions establish the first version of a hierarchy. Adrien Truffert is back after a long absence from the senior national-team picture. Other experienced defenders are not in this group. The midfield has no Tchouaméni, while the attack has room for Lepaul. These are not final verdicts, but they show where Zidane is willing to open competition immediately. For players who spent the Deschamps era close to automatic selection, the message is subtle but unmistakable: continuity does not mean inherited entitlement.
A coach with elite club credentials enters a different game
Zidane arrives with a club coaching record that gives him instant authority but does not remove the uncertainty inherent in international management. At Real Madrid he won three consecutive Champions League titles, an achievement that placed him among the most successful coaches of the modern European era. UEFA notes that his first spell began in 2016 and that he later returned for a second period, adding another Spanish league title before leaving in 2021. He has not managed since then, and he has long made clear that the France job was the role he was prepared to wait for.
International football, however, rewards different habits from club football. Zidane will not have daily access to his players. He cannot spend months refining automatisms through repeated training. Injuries can erase an entire tactical plan between one international window and the next. Players arrive from clubs using different pressing structures, build-up schemes and physical programmes. A national coach has to simplify without becoming predictable, and he has to decide which tactical ideas can survive limited rehearsal.
That is why the first squad is particularly revealing. It is not a finished tactical document, but it shows which types of players Zidane wants around him as he begins the experiment. The mixture of ball-playing midfielders, fast wide attackers, flexible defenders and a new specialist striker suggests that he wants optionality. France can play with three midfielders or two. They can use Mbappé centrally or from the left. They can build with full-backs stepping inside or with a more conventional back four. They can ask Olise and Dembele to create between the lines or use Barcola and Doue to stretch the pitch. The central question is not whether France possess solutions. It is which ones Zidane chooses to prioritise.
From Deschamps to Zidane: a rare succession
Few coaching handovers carry as much symbolism as this one. Deschamps and Zidane were central figures in France's 1998 World Cup victory and Euro 2000 triumph. Deschamps later rebuilt the national team as coach and stayed for 14 years, a period that included the 2018 World Cup title, the 2022 final and multiple deep tournament runs. Zidane now takes over not as an outsider promising to overturn the culture, but as another emblem of the same footballing generation asked to guide a younger one.
That shared history can help explain Zidane's emphasis on continuity, but it may also create unrealistic expectations. His status as one of France's greatest players and his success at Real Madrid make him unusually difficult to separate from myth. Every squad choice will be interpreted through his reputation. Every tactical adjustment will be compared with both his playing identity and Deschamps' methods. If France win, the narrative will quickly become one of destiny fulfilled. If they struggle, questions about his long absence from coaching and his limited experience outside Real Madrid will arrive just as quickly.
The useful distinction is between symbolism and evidence. Zidane's past gives him credibility with players and supporters, but the national team's performance will depend on decisions made now: how France press, how they defend transitions, how the midfield is balanced, how Mbappé is used, and how the coach responds when elite players are unavailable. His first list offers clues, not answers. That is why the Nations League matters. It provides competitive matches soon enough to test the new structure without the immediate finality of a European Championship or World Cup knockout round.
The Nations League offers no gentle introduction
France's first four fixtures under Zidane are all competitive. UEFA's schedule sends Les Bleus to Turkey on September 25 and Belgium on September 28 before Italy visits the Stade de France on October 2 and Belgium follows on October 5. The group continues in November with an away match against Italy and a home match against Turkey. France won the Nations League in 2021, so the competition is not treated inside the French programme as a minor exhibition.
The opening trip to Turkey is particularly useful as a test of a new team. Away international matches can expose communication problems quickly: pressing triggers are harder to coordinate, control of the crowd and tempo becomes important, and mistakes in possession are punished by opponents who can play directly into space. Belgium then presents a different problem, with technical quality and a new coaching cycle of its own. Italy, under Roberto Mancini again, offers yet another stylistic examination. Zidane will have little room to experiment without consequence.
At the same time, the structure of the Nations League allows him to gather information before the more consequential Euro 2028 qualifying campaign. AFP notes that the qualifying draw is due in early December, with the tournament itself to be staged across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland in 2028. By then Zidane should have a clearer sense of which newcomers can become regulars, which established players remain central, and whether his preferred attacking and midfield combinations work against high-level opposition.
France's biggest asset remains depth
The defining feature of the France player pool is not merely star quality but redundancy. If one elite centre-back is injured, another can start. If a winger is unavailable, Zidane can still choose from players who are decisive for major European clubs. That depth has allowed France to survive tournament injuries that would cripple most national teams. It also creates one of the coach's hardest problems: selection can become politically and psychologically sensitive because exclusion does not necessarily mean a player has performed badly.
The current squad illustrates the point. Upamecano, Konate, Kounde, Kalulu, Lacroix, Jacquet, Truffert and Diouf offer different defensive solutions even without Saliba. In midfield, Camavinga, Rabiot, Kone, Zaïre-Emery, Cherki and Da Cunha can be arranged in multiple combinations even without Tchouaméni. In attack, Mbappé, Dembele, Olise, Doue, Barcola and Lepaul can support several systems. Zidane's challenge is to turn abundance into clarity. A squad can become less effective, not more, if too many roles are undefined.
That is where a national coach's communication becomes as important as tactics. Players need to know whether they are selected for a specific opponent, a specific role or a long-term place in the hierarchy. Those distinctions affect how substitutes respond, how newcomers integrate and how veterans handle reduced minutes. Zidane's first public message has been careful: there is room for new faces, but no theatrical purge. If he can maintain that balance once competitive decisions become painful, France's depth will remain a strategic advantage rather than a source of friction.
A tactical question at centre-forward
The most intriguing football question concerns the centre of the attack. Mbappé was used primarily as a centre-forward at the recent World Cup, according to AFP, but Zidane has publicly noted that the captain can play across all three front-line positions and indicated that he likes him from the left. That creates a choice with consequences for nearly every other attacker. A left-sided Mbappé can attack from his preferred lane and isolate full-backs, but it requires another player to occupy central defenders. A central Mbappé can threaten depth constantly, but France then need width and creativity around him.
Lepaul's arrival gives Zidane a natural number-nine option, although a first call-up is not evidence that he will start. Dembele can operate across the attack. Olise can create from the right or move into central pockets. Doue and Barcola bring direct running. Cherki, listed among the midfielders, can add another layer of invention between the lines. The permutations are extensive. What matters is whether the coach can create a stable attacking structure that does not rely solely on individual improvisation.
That was one of the recurring debates around France in the later Deschamps years. The team could be devastating in transition and extraordinarily resilient in tournament football, yet at times it appeared to possess more attacking talent than coordinated attacking mechanisms. Zidane does not need to reject the strengths of that model. France's speed remains a weapon. But if he can give the team more repeatable ways to progress the ball against deep blocks, the ceiling rises. The newcomers, especially a reference striker such as Lepaul and a technical midfielder such as Da Cunha, may help him test different solutions.
Midfield control may define the new era
If the attack provides the headlines, midfield may determine whether Zidane's France can control elite matches. Camavinga offers ball-carrying and recovery power. Rabiot adds experience and physical presence. Kone can cover space and compete aggressively. Zaïre-Emery brings athleticism and technical security. Cherki offers creativity. Da Cunha adds another possession-oriented option. Once Tchouaméni is fully available again, the competition becomes even more intense.
The issue is not simply choosing the best three names. International tournament football repeatedly shows that midfield balance depends on complementary tasks. One player may need to protect the centre-backs while others press. Another may be responsible for receiving under pressure during build-up. A third may have to arrive in the penalty area. If Mbappé is given freedom on the left, the midfield may also need to compensate defensively behind him. If the full-backs advance aggressively, the holding structure becomes even more important.
Zidane was one of the game's great midfielders, but that history should not be confused with a predetermined coaching system. At Real Madrid he showed a willingness to adapt around the strengths of his squad rather than impose a single doctrinal shape. France's first list suggests a similar preference for players who can solve different problems. The Nations League will show whether that flexibility becomes a coherent framework or remains a collection of options awaiting hierarchy.
Youth is being introduced into an experienced spine
Another feature of the squad is the way younger players are being inserted around proven leaders rather than assembled into a wholesale youth project. Jacquet is 21. Restes is still early in his senior career. Doue and Zaïre-Emery are already established at high level despite their age. Yet Maignan, Rabiot, Upamecano, Kounde, Dembele and Mbappé provide substantial tournament experience. That mix reduces the risk of asking newcomers to carry the emotional burden of the transition.
For Zidane, the timeline matters. His contract runs through the 2030 World Cup. Euro 2028 is the first major tournament target, but the squad he takes there may not be identical to the one he will want two years later. Players in their early twenties now can become core figures by 2030, while some current veterans may have different roles. Calling up newcomers immediately gives the staff a longer evidence base. It also prevents the national team from becoming reactive when injuries or declines arrive.
France's production line makes that kind of planning possible, but it also raises expectations. A player can perform well for a top club and still miss the squad. Supporters will inevitably debate every omission. The best defence against that noise is transparent sporting logic and consistent performance standards. Zidane's first list suggests he wants form, profile and fitness to matter alongside status. Whether that remains true when difficult choices involve the most established names will be one of the defining tests of his tenure.
The pressure is immediate, even if the project is long
The appointment may run to 2030, but France do not have the luxury of treating the first year as experimental. The national team enters every competition among the favourites because of its recent history and player pool. Zidane's stature adds another layer. He is not arriving as a coach who can plausibly ask for several years before results matter. The public expectation is that France should compete for the Nations League immediately and enter Euro 2028 with a realistic chance of winning it.
That pressure can be productive if the new staff use the first months to establish simple, durable principles rather than chase instant stylistic perfection. International teams often succeed when players understand a small number of behaviours extremely well: where the first press begins, who protects central space, how the full-backs advance, how the team reacts after losing the ball, and which attackers are given freedom. France's talent can then supply the improvisation.
The risk is that reputation accelerates judgment. A poor result in Turkey or Belgium would be treated as evidence of a problem even though the coach will have had only days of training with the group. A convincing win could generate the opposite exaggeration. The sensible measure is broader: whether France begin to show repeatable patterns, whether newcomers can perform at international speed, whether Mbappé's role is clarified, and whether the team remains defensively stable while Zidane introduces new ideas.
A wider European coaching reset
Zidane's debut also forms part of an unusually broad coaching reset across European international football. UEFA has highlighted the arrival of new managers including Jurgen Klopp with Germany, Xavi Hernandez with the Netherlands, Roberto Mancini back with Italy and Mark van Bommel with Belgium. That means France are not rebuilding in isolation. Several of their direct rivals are also changing methods, hierarchies and tactical identities after the 2026 World Cup.
This context makes the Nations League more valuable than usual. France's matches against Belgium and Italy will not merely test Zidane against settled opposition; they will compare one new project with others at a similarly early stage. The competition can therefore become a laboratory for the next European cycle. Teams are already thinking beyond the immediate results toward Euro 2028, yet the matches still carry enough consequence to expose weak assumptions.
For supporters, that should make the next two months unusually revealing. France's individual quality is already known. What is unknown is how Zidane will organise it, which young players he trusts when the stakes rise, and how much of Deschamps' tournament pragmatism he retains. The coach's comments about continuation suggest evolution rather than revolution, but evolution can still produce a team that looks substantially different once roles are redistributed.
The 23-man squad at a glance
Zidane's 23-player selection also shows how widely France's talent is distributed across Europe's leading leagues. The goalkeepers are Mike Maignan of AC Milan, Robin Risser of Lens and Guillaume Restes of Toulouse. The defensive group includes Andy Diouf of Inter Milan, Jérémy Jacquet of Liverpool, Ibrahima Konaté of Real Madrid, Pierre Kalulu of Juventus, Jules Koundé of Barcelona, Maxence Lacroix of Chelsea, Adrien Truffert of Bournemouth and Dayot Upamecano of Bayern Munich. In midfield, Zidane has called Eduardo Camavinga of Real Madrid, Rayan Cherki of Manchester City, Lucas Da Cunha of Como, Manu Koné of Roma, Adrien Rabiot of AC Milan and Warren Zaïre-Emery of Paris Saint-Germain. The forwards are Bradley Barcola of Liverpool, Ousmane Dembélé and Désiré Doué of Paris Saint-Germain, Esteban Lepaul of Rennes, Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid and Michael Olise of Bayern Munich.
The list is notable not because it favours one league or tactical school, but because it draws from many of them. Players arrive from Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France, carrying habits developed under different club coaches. For a national-team staff, that can be an advantage because the squad contains experience of multiple pressing systems and possession structures. It can also be a complication because concepts that are automatic at club level may mean something different to players trained elsewhere. Zidane's early task is therefore partly linguistic in a football sense: he must create shared definitions for spacing, pressing and movement that can be understood quickly.
The club distribution also underlines why France can afford to select on profile rather than celebrity alone. Jacquet does not need to be the most famous centre-back in the pool if he offers a skill set Zidane wants to examine. Da Cunha does not need to outrank every established midfielder in reputation if his technical characteristics fill a specific need. Lepaul's domestic scoring record can earn him a place even when the forward department already contains global stars. This is the luxury and the burden of coaching France: nearly every decision can be defended with quality, and nearly every omission can be challenged with quality too.
For the newcomers, the first camp is therefore about more than collecting a cap. They must show that their club form translates to the speed and compression of international football, where training periods are short and mistakes can carry immediate consequences. For the established players, the camp is a reminder that status has to be refreshed. The next list will arrive with new evidence from both club and country, and Zidane has already shown that he is willing to widen the competition.
What the first squad says about Zidane's France
The safest conclusion from the September 18 announcement is also the most useful: Zidane is beginning with competition inside continuity. Mbappé stays captain. The core of a world-class squad remains. But five uncapped players have been invited immediately, familiar names have been left out for fitness or selection reasons, and several positions now contain genuine uncertainty. That is enough change to create momentum without pretending France need to erase the past.
There are still major questions that cannot be answered by a squad list. No one yet knows Zidane's preferred starting system, whether Mbappé will begin on the left or centrally, how aggressively France will press, or which midfield combination he considers first choice. It is also too early to judge whether Jacquet, Restes, Diouf, Da Cunha or Lepaul will become long-term internationals. Call-ups are opportunities, not guarantees.
What is clear is that the new era begins quickly. Turkey await on September 25, Belgium three days later, and Italy at the Stade de France shortly after that. Those matches will transform speculation into evidence. For Zidane, the symbolism of returning to the French national team is enormous, but the job itself will be measured in more ordinary football terms: selection, structure, adaptation and results. His first squad has opened the door to renewal. The next step is to show how the pieces fit.
