A curse to the Reigning World Cup Champion

DBasia.news – The French national team, once being world champion twice, and are currently coming to the 2022 World Cup which will start in November-December in Qatar as one of the champion candidates. Especially with their status of the defending World Cup champion.

Yes, in 2018 in Russia, France became champions by beating Croatia in the final with a score of 4-2. The match was held at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, on July 15 2018. France coach, Didier Deschamps was lucky enough to have won the World Cup as a player as well as a coach.

France won the 2018 World Cup but at that time they were also scorned for their pragmatic style of play: not entertaining but the final result is what matters. Such a game is considered a ‘sin’ considering how luxurious Deschamps’ choice of players is.

Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Thomas Lemar, N’Golo Kante, Antoine Griezmann, are some of the names of players from the French champion squad. Deschamps had the option of having France play, but he chose a different option.

In fact, it was like France were following the Portuguese national team when they won the 2016 European Cup with a game that tends to be cautious, pragmatic, but in the end became champions. Whatever it is, the most important thing is to be a winner.

It is also understandable that before the 2022 World Cup, the French national team as the defending champion becomes one of the champions. Didier Deschamps is again the holder of France’s hopes at the World Cup, which could potentially be the last World Cup for him.

The Curse Continues or a New Record

Rumors are circulating that Zinedine Zidane is ready to replace Deschamps after the 2022 World Cup, regardless of whether or not France will succeed in Qatar. If this is true, then it will be the end for the legend who has coached France since 2012.

France are favored to win the 2022 World Cup, although several names from 2018 have the potential to be absent due to injury such as Raphael Varane, Kante, and Pogba who have been confirmed to be absent. But they are also haunted by a curse.

It is a curse regarding the reigning World Cup champions that has been going on since 2002, yes, since 2002 which was also held in Asia and at that time in South Korea and Japan.

In a span of 20 years and four editions of four World Cups, the fate of the reigning champions has always been unfortunate and only one country was able to escape the curse: The Brazilian national team. Brazil won the 2002 World Cup but were able to get out of the group stage at the 2006 World Cup, although their journey stalled in the quarter-finals.

Ironically, it was France who started the curse after winning the 1998 World Cup but ran aground in the 2002 World Cup group stage as caretaker. The fate of France was also experienced by Italy at the 2010 World Cup, Spain at the 2014 World Cup, and Germany at the 2018 World Cup.

But seen from a different angle, Deschamps (54) can also enter the history books or a new record since Brazil in 1958 and 1962, as a figure who can lead the national team to win the World Cup twice in a row.

Career

Didier Deschamps was a former professional player from 1985 to 2001 and his playing position was defensive midfielder. In his era he was quite famous in Europe and had good qualities in that position, as evidenced by his 103 caps with the French national team and four goals as well as captaining and winning the World Cup and European Cup.

Nantes, Marseille, Bordeaux, Juventus, Chelsea and Valencia are former clubs that Deschamps has played for. After retiring as a player in 2001, Deschamps continued to coach at AS Monaco until 2005.

In that four years he had brought Monaco to the 2004 Champions League final before losing to Jose Mourinho’s Porto. Then, Deschamps became a hero for Juventus when they were relegated to Serie B due to Calciopoli’s scandal.

Juventus were unbeaten in Serie B and became champions until returning to Serie A. Then in 2009 Deschamps became coach of Marseille and led the team to Ligue 1 and Coupe de la Ligue titles in his first season.

Three years later, France appointed Deschamps as coach to replace Laurent Blanc. Deschamps’ era there was the longest after Gaston Barreau who coached from 1919 to 1945. France were also taken to the final of Euro 2016 and won the 2018 World Cup.

At Euro 2020 France’s journey ended in the last 16, but that did not close the fact that Deschamps was a great figure as a player and coach. Again, he will bear the expectations of the French people at the 2022 World Cup.