We knew that managing the French national football team required a track record, natural authority, and nerves of steel. Now we discover that it also apparently requires a good backhand and a court reserved for weekend play. An investigation, not so absurd after all, into the strange connection between the French national team's bench and the padel courts.

Deschamps, from the locker room to the track

Let's start with the obvious: Didier Deschamps is a long-time padel player, and not the type to just hit a few balls between press conferences. His passion dates back to 2010, when he was coaching Olympique de Marseille and discovered the sport on a court in Cassis. Since then, he's never put down the racket: he even ended up giving up tennis, which he considered less "fun."

The French national team coach is a regular at the French Open in Beausoleil and at the A1 Padel The Monaco Masters, two iconic events on the French Riviera, this stretch of coastline between Nice and Monaco that has become the true French capital of padel for former footballers. A quick update: the A1 Padel was an international professional circuit, launched by the Monegasque businessman Fabrice Pastor under the name APT Padel Tour in 2020 then renamed A1 Padel in 2023, conceived as an alternative to Premier PadelThe circuit announced the cancellation of its calendar in May 2025 before falling into a prolonged silence, so much so that it no longer exists today — Deschamps will therefore have participated in one of the tournaments of a now-defunct circuit, which doesn't detract from the anecdote at all. Deschamps even has his own padel court on his property, and Monaco's Davis Cup coach, Guillaume Couillard, who regularly plays with him, assures us that he "plays incredibly well."

The ultimate proof of his seriousness: Deschamps won a P250 tournament reserved for those over 55, organized at Padel Club d'Èze — on the same Riviera where footballers and Monegasques like to meet to relive, rackets in hand, the old Nice-Monaco derbies. That could almost justify a dedicated line on his CV as national team coach.

To coach the French national team, you need to know how to hold a racket: just ask Deschamps and Zidane!

And what about Zidane in all of this?

Zinedine Zidane, for his part, tackled the problem head-on: rather than simply playing, he actually built the pitches. The 1998 World Cup winner inaugurated the Z5 center in 2022. Padel In Istres, it's a family affair since his brother manages the Aix-en-Provence site, before announcing an expansion project all the way to Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane: “In padel you can play with everyone”

Zidane recounts discovering padel in Spain, "six or seven years ago, with friends and family," in a country where, according to him, the sport is the equivalent of football in popularity. He even had the privilege of hitting the ball alongside Alejandro Galán, one of the world's best players, at the inauguration of his complex in Aix-en-Provence—an experience he describes as particularly formative for rapid progress. One thing is certain: between a center in Istres, another in Aix, and ambitions extending to Italy and Spain, Zidane clearly doesn't share the same approach to padel as his former teammate Deschamps. One plays, the other invests—both are hooked.

To coach the French national team, you need to know how to hold a racket: just ask Deschamps and Zidane!

An entire generation of French players infected

Deschamps and Zidane are not isolated cases. Several French internationals have also succumbed to the sport: Paul Pogba, Olivier Giroud, and Benjamin Pavard are among the French national team players who have regularly hit the ball on a padel court. It seems the locker room has traded card games for padel matches between training camps.

The phenomenon extends far beyond French borders: Neymar, Ibrahimović and Messi are also among the world's biggest football stars who have undeniably become "padel-addicts".

So, a hidden recruitment criterion?

Of course, no one at the French Football Federation has ever officially added "playing padel" to the prerequisites for the national team coach position. But between Deschamps, a fixture on the courts of the French Riviera for fifteen years, and Zidane, who has become an entrepreneur in the sector, the coincidence is certainly amusing. If the National Technical Directorate (DTN) ever publishes a job description, we won't be entirely surprised to find, between "high-level experience" and "ability to manage a locker room," a discreet line: "good level of padel preferred."

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

On the same subject

Tags