1996 - Champions
League with Juventus (Italy)
1998 - World Cup with France
2000 - Euro Championship with France
Biography
Didier Deschamps (born 15 October 1968 in Bayonne) is a former
French football player who captained France to victories in the
1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. More recently, Deschamps has been
involved in football management. He was the head coach of AS
Monaco in France's Ligue 1 until his resignation on 19 September
2005 after a poor start to the season.
Club career
Deschamps started his football career at an amateur club, Aviron
Bayonnais whilst still at school. His potential was spotted by
scouts from Nantes, for whom he signed in April 1983. Deschamps
made his league debut on 27 September 1985.
Transferred to Olympique Marseille in 1989, Deschamps spent a
season with Bordeaux in 1990 before returning to Marseille. In
this second spell with Marseille Deschamps gained his first
honours. As well as winning two French league titles in 1991 and
1992, Deschamps was part of the Marseille team which became the
first, (and so far only) French winners of the Champions League
in 1993.
In 1994, Deschamps joined Italian giants Juventus, with whom he
won three Italian titles, one Italian Cup, two Italian Supercups
and his second Champions League title (in 1996).
After Juventus, Deschamps spent a season in England with Chelsea,
winning the FA Cup. He finished his playing career in Spain,
spending a season with Valencia before retiring in 2001.
International career
Receiving his first international call-up for Michel Platini in
1989 (against Yugoslavia), Deschamps started his international
career in what was a dark time for the French team, failing to
qualify for the World Cup in both 1990 and 1994. Deschamps first
captained France in 1996 in a friendly match against Germany as
a warmup for Euro 96.
In 1998, Deschamps captained France as they won 1998 World Cup,
performing an integral role in the team. Propelled by the
momentum of this triumph, Deschamps also captained France as
they won Euro 2000. Following the tournament Deschamps announced
his retirement from internaional football, making his final
appearance in a ceremonial match against a FIFA XI in August
2002. At the time of his retirement Deschamps held the record
for the most appearances for France, though this has since been
surpassed by Marcel Desailly. In total, Deschamps earned 102
caps and scored four goals. Deschamps was named by Pelé as one
of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.
Deschamps was often derided in his career by being described as
"the water-carrier" by which was meant he only existed to pass
the ball to more talented players. This description masked a
very valuable player to a number of top teams.
