Fabien Barthez Returns to Les Bleus with Zinedine Zidane

Fabien Barthez is back with Les Bleus – and this time, alongside Zinedine Zidane.

The French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed on Thursday that the 1998 World Cup-winning goalkeeper will join the staff of the new France head coach, taking charge of the national team’s goalkeepers. At 55, Barthez steps into a role that brings him right back to the heart of the setup he once helped take to the summit of world football.

The reunion is rich in symbolism. Barthez and Zidane were central figures when France lifted the World Cup on home soil in 1998, and now they return as architects rather than actors, tasked with shaping a new era after the end of Didier Deschamps’ long reign.

Barthez’s brief is clear: oversee and develop the goalkeepers of the French national team. It’s a position he knows well. The former Toulouse, Monaco, Marseille and Manchester United keeper has already served as a consultant with France under Raymond Domenech and Laurent Blanc. But during Deschamps’ 14 years in charge, Barthez had no official role. Now that door has swung open again.

He has not been entirely away from the touchline either. Between 2020 and 2021, Barthez spent a short spell on the coaching staff at Toulouse, adding another line to a post-playing career that has steadily drawn him back towards the elite game.

Zidane’s backroom team is taking on a distinctly familiar shape. The FFF also announced several other appointments, headlined by assistant coaches David Bettoni and Hamidou Msaidie, two long-time lieutenants of Zidane. Both worked closely with him during his two spells in charge of Real Madrid, where that tight-knit staff collected Champions League titles and built a reputation for meticulous preparation.

Another key figure follows the same path from Madrid to Clairefontaine. Gregory Dupont, named “Strategy and Performance Advisor,” also previously worked with Zidane at Real. His arrival underlines the new head coach’s intention to surround himself with trusted specialists as he steps into one of the most demanding jobs in world football.

Zidane, 54, was appointed on July 28 to succeed his former teammate Deschamps after France’s exit in the World Cup semi-finals. It marked the end of one of the most successful tenures in international management and the beginning of a bold new chapter, with a staff built on continuity of relationships but a clear shift in leadership.

The countdown is already on. Zidane will lead his first France training camp in September, the first chance to put his ideas on the pitch and to re-establish the old connection with Barthez in a new context.

The competitive debut comes quickly. France’s first match under Zidane will be a Nations League trip to Turkey on September 25 – a first real test of a rebuilt bench, a reunited 1998 core, and a national team searching for its next peak.