'Pressure is high': Football legend Zinedine Zidane inherits a France squad with 'everything to win'

To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Cover image: © France 24 08:32 Issued on: 28/07/2026 - 20:47 Monte Francis is pleased to welcome Karim Baldé, Sports Journalist and Founder of "Bal des Productions" News Agency. According to Baldé, Zinedine Zidane, as France's new football manager, one of the world's richest and most successful squads, heightening the expectations created by Didier Deschamps' sustained excellence and by a generation of players widely regarded as capable of dominating international football. Bladé suggests that while Zidane's persona and football legacy provides him with immediate credibility, lasting success will depend on translating personal prestige into collective resilience, tactical adaptation, and the cultivation of genuine leadership within the squad. Keywords for this article