Zidane's New France Squad Signals Changing of the Guard

Zinedine Zidane walked into FFF headquarters in Paris and made it clear within minutes: this is his France now.

The new head coach, successor to Didier Deschamps after a 12-year reign, unveiled his first 23-man squad and drew a sharp line between eras. No Karim Benzema. No N'Golo Kante. Instead, five fresh faces and a trimmed group built for intensity, not sentiment.

Jeremy Jacquet, Andy Diouf, Lucas Da Cunha, Guillaume Restes and Esteban Lepaul all received their first senior call-ups, a wave of debutants who will report straight to Clairefontaine on Monday. For them, the national football centre becomes the stage where Zidane’s France begins.

A smaller squad, by design. Zidane wants everyone involved, everyone on edge, across a brutal run of four games in ten days. No passengers.

He laid out his thinking in front of the press, speaking less like a politician and more like a coach with a clear plan. Form and potential, not reputation, sat at the heart of his choices. He lingered on Jacquet in particular, the Liverpool centre-back he knows well from years of watching him grow.

"I like Jacquet's profile a lot. I've followed him for a long time because he played alongside my son in the youth teams," Zidane said, underlining a long-standing connection that now carries into the senior setup.

The same conviction ran through his praise of Inter Milan midfielder Diouf and Como’s Lucas Da Cunha. Zidane sees them as part of the engine of a more proactive, front-foot France – players who can press, carry, and create in tight spaces, and do it at the tempo he demands.

His message was blunt: the game comes first.

"They are players who deserve to be here, players I want to see," he said. "What inspires me is the game. I want to see these players and this team playing."

That vision stretches across the pitch. Zidane stressed versatility, especially in central midfield and at full-back, where modern France sides have so often been defined. Adrien Truffert returns to the fold, recalled to reinforce the flanks and form part of a new left-sided balance alongside Diouf.

"Choosing Andy Diouf and Truffert is a strong choice. They are capable of playing in this position," Zidane explained, framing the pair as tactical pieces rather than simple squad fillers.

The flip side of that renewal is stark. Kante, a World Cup winner and one of the defining midfielders of his generation, is out. Benzema, another world champion and Ballon d’Or winner, also left at home.

"N'Golo is 35 and I have made choices, which are different," Zidane said. "I adore Karim, but he's a certain age. I need to see younger players and what we will do together."

No nostalgia. No half-measures. Zidane is building forward, not looking back.

The schedule leaves him no time to ease in. France face a demanding block of four fixtures in ten days, a crash course in his methods for an evolving squad. Les Bleus open away to Turkey in Izmir on Friday, September 25, then head to Brussels to meet Belgium on September 28.

After that, the spotlight swings back to Saint-Denis. Italy arrive at the Stade de France on October 2, followed by a second meeting with Belgium on October 5. By then, the first real outlines of Zidane’s France should be visible: pressing patterns, positional structure, relationships between the new faces and the established stars.

One constant remains. Kylian Mbappe keeps the armband, the captain tasked with bridging eras and embodying the style Zidane wants – aggressive, expressive, and relentlessly attacking.

The names on the squad list confirm it: the Deschamps cycle is over. Zidane is betting on youth, on bold choices, and on a clear idea of how France should play.

Now the question is simple: how fast can this new generation turn promise into power on the pitch?