France national football team: full squad and key players

France went to the 2026 World Cup expecting to be there in the final week, and for most of a month they looked every bit the part. Six wins from six carried them into a semi-final against Spain. That is where the run stopped, and what followed was one of the strangest matches of the whole tournament: a 6-4 bronze-medal defeat to England in Miami Gardens that closed the book on Didier Deschamps’ fourteen years in charge.

Here is the full France squad from that campaign, the players who shaped it, and what the national team looks like now that Zinedine Zidane is walking into the job.

France’s full 26-man World Cup squad

Deschamps named his 26 on 14 May 2026. The clubs below are the ones each player represented during the tournament, though the summer window has already shuffled a couple of them.

Goalkeepers (3)

• Mike Maignan (AC Milan)
• Brice Samba (Rennes)
• Robin Risser (Lens)

Defenders (9)

• Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich)
• William Saliba (Arsenal)
• Ibrahima Konaté (Liverpool)
• Jules Koundé (Barcelona)
• Lucas Hernandez (PSG)
• Theo Hernandez (Al-Hilal)
• Lucas Digne (Aston Villa)
• Malo Gusto (Chelsea)
• Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace)

Midfielders (5)

• Aurélien Tchouaméni (Real Madrid)
• N’Golo Kanté (Fenerbahce)
• Adrien Rabiot (AC Milan)
• Manu Koné (Roma)
• Warren Zaïre-Emery (PSG)

Forwards (9)

• Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid)
• Ousmane Dembélé (PSG)
• Michael Olise (Bayern Munich)
• Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan)
• Désiré Doué (PSG)
• Bradley Barcola (PSG)
• Rayan Cherki (Manchester City)
• Maghnes Akliouche (Monaco)
• Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace)

Five midfielders in a 26 is a thin allocation, and it told you how Deschamps intended to play: Tchouaméni holding, Rabiot and Koné doing the running either side of him, and the extra bodies committed to a forward line deep enough to change a game twice over. Digne is already on his way out of Aston Villa, with PSG triggering the 10 million euro release clause in his contract, so even the left-back picture looks different to the one on this list.

The key players

Kylian Mbappé. Ten goals, the Golden Boot, and a place in the record books as the first player to finish top scorer at two World Cups. He scored twice against Senegal, twice against Iraq, twice against Sweden, converted the only goal of the Paraguay tie from the spot, added one against Morocco, and then scored twice more in a losing cause against England. He is also now the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.

Mike Maignan. Two goals conceded across the entire group stage, and a clean sheet in all three knockout wins. Maignan has been first choice since Hugo Lloris stepped away in 2023, and at 31 he makes goalkeeper the least urgent question in the squad.

William Saliba. The Arsenal centre-back has grown into the defensive anchor Deschamps built around, and his partnership with Upamecano carried France through the knockout rounds until Spain pulled it apart.

Ousmane Dembélé. The most direct outlet France have when a match slows down, and the player who made the most of the space Mbappé’s gravity created.

Aurélien Tchouaméni. The pivot the whole shape rests on. His absence would have been felt more than anyone’s, which is exactly the problem with carrying only five midfielders.

Michael Olise. The quietest superstar performance of the tournament. Olise finished with seven assists, breaking a World Cup record that had belonged to Pelé since 1970, and five of them were laid on for Mbappé. If you want to know how France scored so freely for a month, start there rather than with the finisher.

Désiré Doué. Still only in his early twenties and out of this tournament with more credit than he went into it with. Along with Olise, Cherki and Zaïre-Emery, he is the reason the next cycle does not look like a rebuild.

How France’s 2026 World Cup unfolded

France topped Group I with three straight wins: 3-1 against Senegal, 3-0 against Iraq, 4-1 against Norway. Sweden were beaten in the round of 32, Paraguay in the round of 16, and Morocco went out 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

The semi-final against Spain was the first time all tournament that France were second best for ninety minutes. Mikel Oyarzabal scored from the penalty spot in the 22nd minute, Pedro Porro added a second just before the hour, and it finished 0-2. Spain went on to beat Argentina in the final.

Then the bronze match. England were 4-0 up at the break through Declan Rice, Ezri Konsa and two from Bukayo Saka, and looked to have buried it. France scored three after the restart, two of them from Mbappé and one from Bradley Barcola, to get within a goal at 4-3. Saka completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot and Jude Bellingham settled it, 6-4. It was the highest-scoring third-place match in World Cup history, and not how anyone expected the Deschamps era to end.

Zidane takes over from Deschamps

Deschamps had said before the tournament that this would be his last, and he leaves after fourteen years with the 2018 World Cup, the 2021 Nations League, and runner-up finishes at Euro 2016 and the 2022 World Cup. He is one of only three men to win the World Cup as both player and coach. The French Football Federation has agreed a four-year deal with Zinedine Zidane to replace him, starting on 1 September 2026 and running through the 2030 World Cup, with the formal announcement expected within days.

It is a handover with less rebuilding attached than most. Maignan is settled, the centre-back pairing is in place, Mbappé is 27 and coming off a second Golden Boot, and Olise, Doué, Cherki, Zaïre-Emery and Akliouche are all young enough to define the next two tournaments rather than fill them out. The obvious job for Zidane is midfield: Kanté is nearly at the end, Rabiot is in his thirties, and a squad that took five midfielders to a World Cup will need more than that at Euro 2028.

What comes next for France

Zidane’s first camp arrives almost immediately. France have been drawn into a hard Nations League group alongside Belgium, Italy and Turkey, and the campaign opens in late September, which gives the new coach a matter of weeks between taking the job and a proper test of it. Beyond that the horizon is Euro 2028, hosted by Britain and Ireland, and then the 2030 World Cup that his contract runs to.

The squad he inherits is unusual in that the succession has mostly already happened. France did not need this tournament to blood a generation, because Doué, Cherki, Zaïre-Emery, Akliouche and Olise were all in it and all contributed. What Zidane has to solve is narrower and more awkward: replacing Kanté, deciding whether Rabiot still starts, and finding two or three midfielders good enough that France do not have to carry a squad this lopsided again.

Who is France’s captain?

Kylian Mbappé captained France at the 2026 World Cup, his third. He took the armband permanently in 2023 after Hugo Lloris retired from international football.

Who is France’s head coach?

Didier Deschamps led France at the 2026 World Cup and stepped down afterwards. Zinedine Zidane succeeds him from 1 September 2026.

Other 2026 World Cup squads

We have put together the same breakdown for the other leading nations at the tournament: Spain, England, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and Germany.

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