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Dynasties rarely end with a bang. More often, they fade quietly, leaving only numbers and memories to tell the story.

Didier Deschamps departs the France dugout after 187 matches in charge, having won 122 of them, drawn 32 and lost only 33 — a remarkable 65.2% win rate. But statistics alone cannot explain his tenure.

Restoring credibility

He inherited a national team weighed down by embarrassment and disappointment when he succeeded Laurent Blanc in 2012. The side was still scarred by one of the darkest episodes in its footballing history. The disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa had descended into chaos, culminating in the players’ infamous ‘mutiny’ against erstwhile manager Raymond Domenech. Blanc’s subsequent two-year spell did little to erase that stain.

Deschamps’ first task was to restore France’s credibility. Fourteen years later, he walks away having delivered far more than most dared to expect, leaving behind a side that measures tournaments not by qualification, but by how far it goes.

The blueprint for Deschamps’ managerial philosophy was obvious to those who watched him play.

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From Nantes, Marseille and Juventus to the French national team, Deschamps captained almost every side he represented. Leadership came naturally, but so did another conviction that would shape his managerial career: an organised team will almost always outperform a collection of outstanding individuals. Yes, talent mattered. But the collective mattered more.

As a player, Deschamps made his name as a defensive midfielder whose greatest gifts were discipline, intelligence and relentless industry. His job was simple — recover possession and move the ball to those capable of creating something extraordinary. Eric Cantona’s famous nickname for him, ‘the water-carrier’, was less than complimentary. But it perfectly captured Deschamps’ willingness to sacrifice personal glory for the team’s success.

Those same principles became the foundation of every French dressing room he commanded and helped him early on as he repaired a broken national side, both within the dressing room and beyond it.

His outfits mirrored him: relentless in their work rate, aggressive in their pressing, disciplined without the ball and exceptionally well organised. Superstars were encouraged, but never at the expense of team structure.

That pragmatism often made him an easy target for critics. What rarely received the same attention was his willingness to evolve. Over more than a decade in charge, Deschamps successfully navigated multiple generations of French talent — from Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema to Kylian Mbappe — adjusting his communication and leadership styles without ever compromising the standards he demanded.

The results speak for themselves. France reached the last four at the World Cup in three successive editions under Deschamps. It lifted the trophy in 2018, fell on penalties in the 2022 final and made a semifinal exit this year. In 2014, it was eliminated by eventual champion Germany in the quarterfinals. In England, a record like that would probably earn someone a knighthood — and then some.

“I’m extremely happy. I’m very proud of everything we’ve done to reach this stage and to win a World Cup, to take the French team to the highest level,” Deschamps told the press at this year’s quadrennial showpiece.

Final-chapter irony

The irony is that his final chapter may have vindicated everything he had spent more than a decade preaching.

For years, Deschamps was criticised for being too cautious, too conservative, too reluctant to unleash France’s extraordinary attacking talent. In this World Cup, he defied his own patterns, loosened the reins and gave his star-studded side greater freedom. While that produced some of the tournament’s most attractive football, it would also be its undoing.

When Spain ended its campaign, it was not because France lacked flair. It was because it was overrun. It cried out for the very qualities that had long defined Deschamps’ best teams: discipline, composure and control. If anything, it served as a reminder that putting the handbrake on is not always a sign of fear. Sometimes, it is simply what wins football matches, especially in knockout games at the highest level.

Unlike many of football’s iconic players, Deschamps did not walk straight into elite managerial jobs on reputation alone. He earned his credentials by rebuilding clubs that needed rescuing. And he did it thrice.

AS Monaco came first. Appointed in 2001, he guided it to second place in Ligue 1 in only his second season, finishing just one point behind title-winning Olympique Lyonnais. He followed it with the League Cup triumph, famous Champions League victories over Real Madrid and Chelsea, and a run all the way to the final before Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto proved too strong.

Then came Juventus. Relegated to Serie B in the aftermath of the Calciopoli match-fixing scandal and burdened with a nine-point deduction, the Bianconeri needed stability as much as results. Deschamps delivered both, leading it straight back to Serie A as champion before resigning just a week after promotion following disagreements over transfer strategy.

His next revival came with Marseille, the club he had famously captained to Champions League glory as a player. In his first season, he ended an 18-year wait for the Ligue 1 title before adding three successive League Cups and two French Super Cups. Reawakening one of French football’s sleeping giants made him the obvious choice to succeed Blanc in 2012.

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His record on the international stage is extraordinary. Five of the seven major tournaments in which France was eliminated under Deschamps ended with the team losing to the eventual champions. His tenure not only witnessed the makings of an enviable World Cup record, but also saw Les Bleus make the Euro final in 2016 and the semifinals in 2024.

And yet, despite everything he achieved, one question will linger. Could he have accomplished even more?

That says as much about the extraordinary depth of French talent as it does about the man who guided it. Deschamps inherited a stable overflowing with gifted footballers, but his greatest achievement was moulding them into a side that consistently functioned as something greater than the sum of its parts.

Where the truth lies

The debate over his legacy will not disappear anytime soon. Critics will argue that his caution prevented France from reaching even greater heights. His supporters will counter that his discipline transformed limitless potential into sustained excellence. The truth, as is so often the case with the finest managerial careers, probably lies somewhere in between.

Perhaps that is the paradox of Deschamps. The better France became under him, the more was expected of him. Winning the World Cup became the benchmark rather than the dream. Reaching the semifinals became routine instead of remarkable. All said and done, he leaves with France restored to where it belongs — among the game’s true heavyweights.

Another French legend, Zinedine Zidane, is widely tipped to be the man who follows him. Deschamps leaves behind a daunting assignment, though. His are far from impossible shoes to fill, but they are certainly not comfortable ones.

Lineups are announced and players are warming up.

France: Mike Maignan; Jules Kounde, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba, ‌Lucas Digne; Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembele, Michael Olise, Bradley Barcola; Kylian ⁠Mbappe (captain).

Spain: Unai Simon; Pedro Porro, Pau ⁠Cubarsi, Aymeric Laporte, Marc Cucurella; Rodri (captain), Fabian ‌Ruiz, Dani Olmo; Lamine Yamal, Alex Baena, Mikel Oyarzabal. 

France’s Mbappe and Morocco’s Saibari have been scoring goals for fun.
| Photo Credit: AFP

France’s Mbappe and Morocco’s Saibari have been scoring goals for fun.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Portugal’s Pepe is consoled by teammate Cristiano Ronaldo following the team’s defeat in the penalty shoot-out during the UEFA EURO 2024 quarterfinal match against France in Hamburg on July 5, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

This time, they weren’t Cristiano Ronaldo’s tears.

Instead, the Portugal superstar’s role was to console a weeping teammate after a painful exit from their last European Championship — and, who knows, potentially their final major international tournament.

Pepe, a defender still excelling for his country at the remarkable age of 41, was dejected as he sobbed on the shoulder of Ronaldo in a embrace lasting about 15 seconds following Portugal’s penalty-shootout loss to France in the quarterfinals in Hamburg on Friday.

Two Portugal stalwarts. A combined age of 80. It was quite the sight.

“Soccer is very cruel,” Pepe said.

Ronaldo cried himself at Euro 2024 — after having a penalty saved during extra time of the last-16 match against Slovenia just four days ago. He cried at the 2022 World Cup after Portugal lost to Morocco in the quarterfinals.

Maybe he was out of tears, because this time he simply looked into the sky, appearing to be disappointed and rueful.

Ronaldo will be 41 when the next major tournament rolls around — the 2026 World Cup, jointly held by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Can he stick around until then? Well, he is still captain of his country — the holder of a men’s record 130 international goals and 212 international appearances.

He is still churning out full games for his country. The only time he didn’t complete a match at Euro 2024 was in the group stage against Georgia, when he came off in the 66th minute with Portugal assured of advancing. He played the entire 120 minutes against Slovenia and France.

And he still clearly commands the respect of his teammates and coach, Roberto Martinez.

Yet Ronaldo, who now plays his club soccer out of the global spotlight in Saudi Arabia, has now gone eight games without a goal in major tournaments. That takes in all five of Portugal’s matches at Euro 2024 and its final three at the World Cup in Qatar.

He was almost completely shackled by France center backs William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano, with Ronaldo’s only clear chance coming in extra time when he finally escaped his marker but couldn’t hook a shot on target from a cross from the right.

Ronaldo converted his penalty in the shootout but it wasn’t enough, And then he had to take on the role of comforter for Pepe.

“I won’t say it publicly,” Pepe told TV station Canal 11, when asked what Ronaldo said to him. “But we feel it a lot. Contrary to what many people think, we feel it a lot.

“We feel the frustration of not winning a game, of being eliminated in such a big competition as the European Championship, knowing that we had a lot of quality to go through. That’s the pain we feel.”

Portugal coach Roberto Martinez echoed those thoughts, saying “the tears are tears of frustration.” “When you play against better opposition, there are no tears but this is hard to accept,” he said.

Martinez added that Ronaldo had yet to make a call about his international future, saying things were “too raw” and that Portugal was “suffering a defeat as a team — there are no individual decisions at this point.” Pepe was slightly more open, even if he still left things unclear about his future.

“I will have the opportunity to speak in the future,” he said. “I don’t want to speak about it (now) because tomorrow people might be speaking about my future instead of talking about this process.” Ronaldo finishes his European Championship career on a record 14 goals. That’s five more than his nearest rival, Michel Platini, who scored all of his at one tournament — Euro 1984 — including two hat tricks.

Ronaldo is the only player to go to six editions of the European Championship. He had scored at each one before arriving in Germany.

Euro 2024, however, proved a tournament too far..