Star coaches make their bows as Nations League returns

The 2026/27 Nations League kicks off on Thursday but all eyes will be on the touchlines as a starry cast of new coaches, including Zinedine Zidane and Jurgen Klopp, prepare to make their debuts in international football. The end of World Cup cycles usually herald in a host ofnew faces, however, the 2026 vintage is particularly bountiful, with no fewer than 10 European nations having appointed a new coach since this summer’s tournament in North America. Most notable are 1998 World Cup winner and France legend Zidane, who succeeds Didier Deschamps as Les Bleus boss, and former Liverpool manager Klopp, who takes over his native Germany. When Deschamps announced the 2026 World Cup would signal the end of his 14-year reign as France boss, only one name was on the lips of football fans in the country: ‘Zizou’.

They got their wish when it was announced in July that the three-time Champions League-winning coach was replacing his old team-mate and captain at the helm of Les Bleus. “It’s like a film, but it’s amazing. It’s real,” current France skipper Kylian Mbappe told Spanish daily AS on Monday. Finally, the 54-year-old will oversee his first matches as coach away to Turkey on Friday and in Belgium three days later, before making his touchline bow at the Stade de France on October 2 against Italy. A second meeting against the Belgians in Paris the following Monday will bring the curtain down on Zidane’s opening salvo in international management. “The France job was the only one I wanted,” former Real Madrid coach Zidane said in July. “I’ve had offers over these four or five years to take charge of a club and I turned them all down for the French national team. “I’m ready for the challenge, that’s what drives me. ” ‘The high point’ If Zidane’s appointment marks the long-awaited…