LONDON — Among the awards passed out at FIFA’s annual celebratory gala earlier this month was one for the year’s top coach. The shortlist’s star power was provided by Zinedine Zidane, who signed off as Real Madrid’s coach with a third straight Champions League title. Then there was Zlatko Dalic, the previously little-known manager who led Croatia on its improbable journey to the World Cup final.
And then there was Didier Deschamps.
In guiding France past Dalic’s Croatia in Moscow, Deschamps became only the third man to win the World Cup as both player and coach. Yet while Zidane and Dalic received thunderous applause when their names were read inside London’s Royal Festival Hall, the mention of Deschamps merited little more than a ripple of polite applause.