French Football Federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet admits he would not be surprised to see Zinedine Zidane take up the Paris Saint-Germain job in the near-future.
Zidane has been out of the game since bringing his second spell on the bench at Real Madrid to a close at the end of the 2020-21 season.
But with three Champions League winner's medals as a coach to his name, the Frenchman continually finds himself linked to some of football's top jobs.
Will Zinedine Zidane manage PSG or France?
"You have to be careful what you say. Zidane has shown Madrid that he has qualities that were barely imaginable," the FFF chief explained to L'Equipe when asked if Zizou could be considered as a successor to Didier Deschamps in the France post.
"In the minds of the French, he may be a successor. But that's not my goal. We'll see. If Didier and I go our separate ways, he will surely be one of the options.
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"Do you see me saying today: 'Is it Zidane who will replace Deschamps?' We'll see. Zidane might take on PSG. For the France team, you have to be free.
"But today, we are going to do everything to put Didier in the best conditions to win this World Cup."
What are France's World Cup targets?
Zidane's team-mate and captain during France's first World Cup win in 1998, Deschamps repeated the feat as coach 20 years later when he took the likes of Paul Pogba, Kylian Mbappe and N'Golo Kante to glory at Russia 2018.
And when asked about what he hopes France can achieve during their defence of the title in Qatar, Le Graet set his sights high.
“We want to defend our title. But the objective is at least the last four, as usual," he added.
"Will Deschamps be kept if this objective is not fulfilled? We'll discuss that later. He is our employee, but he's also a friend. I have a very courteous relationship with him."
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