The 2026/27 Nations League begins on Thursday, drawing attention to the sidelines where prominent new coaches, including Zinedine Zidane and Jurgen Klopp, will make their international debuts. This tournament marks a significant moment for these high-profile managers as they transition from club to international football, aiming to make an immediate impact on the global stage.
The end of World Cup cycles usually herald in a host ofnew faces, however, the 2026 vintage is particularly bountiful, with no fewer than 10 European nations having appointed a new coach since this summer’s tournament in North America. Most notable are 1998 World Cup winner and France legend Zidane, who succeeds Didier Deschamps as Les Bleus boss, and former Liverpool manager Klopp, who takes over his native Germany. When Deschamps announced the 2026 World Cup would signal the end of his 14-year reign as France boss, only one name was on the lips of football fans in the country: ‘Zizou’.
They got their wish when it was announced in July that the three-time Champions League-winning coach was replacing his old team-mate and captain at the helm of Les Bleus.
I will give it everything I have,” Klopp said at his unveiling after Julian Nagelsmann departed following Germany’s disastrous World Cup. “I’ve had offers over these four or five years to take charge of a club and I turned them all down for the French national team. If Zidane’s appointment marks the long-awaited return of an iconic figure to the national team in France, Klopp’s has been greeted with no less excitement in Germany, even if it is the former Mainz defender’s first taste of the Nationalmannschaft. “This is ideally the high point of my career, of my life, my professional life.
