Star coaches make their bows as Nations League returns

The UEFA Nations League kicks off today, but all eyes would be on the touchlines as a starry cast of new coaches, including Zinedine Zidane and Juergen Klopp, prepare to make their debuts in international soccer.

The end of FIFA World Cup cycles usually herald in a host of new faces; however, this year’s 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.

France coach Zinedine Zidane gestures after a training session in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, France, on Tuesday.

Photo: Reuters

When Deschamps announced this year’s World Cup would signal the end of his 14-year reign as France boss, only one name was on the lips of soccer 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 teammate and captain at the helm of Les Bleus.

“It’s like a film, but it’s amazing. It’s real,” France skipper Kylian Mbappe told Spanish daily AS on Monday.

Germany coach Juergen Klopp, front, looks on during a training session in Herzogenaurach, Germany, on Tuesday.

Photo: Reuters

Finally, the 54-year-old will oversee his first matches as coach away to Turkey tomorrow and in Belgium three days later, before making his touchline bow at the Stade de France on Friday next week against Italy. A second meeting against the Belgians in Paris the following Monday would bring the curtain down on Zidane’s opening salvo in international management.

“The France job was the only one I wanted,” former Real Madrid coach Zidane said in July.

“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,” he said. “I’m ready for the challenge, that’s what drives me.”

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.

Uncapped as a player, Klopp made his name in soccer as a coach. After legendary spells at Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool, and a period away from the touchline as Red Bull’s global sports director, Klopp will begin an adventure many in Germany thought would never happen.

“This is ideally the high point of my career, of my life, my professional life. I will give it everything I have,” Klopp said at his unveiling after Julian Nagelsmann departed following Germany’s disastrous World Cup.

The charismatic 59-year-old Klopp has already shown he would do things his way by calling up 44 players, divided into two squads, for his first matches in charge.

Those games are against the Netherlands in Amsterdam today and at home to Greece three days later, before a meeting with Serbia in Munich on Thursday next week and a trip to Greece on Oct. 4.

Other arrivals for this opening round of Nations League matches include Jorge Jesus, who will make his Portugal debut when the competition’s reigning champions welcome Wales today.

Former Barcelona metronome and 2010 World Cup winner Xavi Hernandez replaces Ronald Koeman as Netherlands coach.

Roberto Mancini, who masterminded Italy’s UEFA Euro 2020 victory, returns to try and right the course of the floundering Azzurri.

Former Bayern Munich and Netherlands midfielder Mark van Bommel is to oversee his first Belgium match against Italy and Slaven Bilic takes over the Croatia reins for a second time, following a successful six-year spell in charge of the Vatreni between 2006 and 2012.

Spain’s World Cup and European Championship-winning coach Luis de la Fuente is staying put. He was on Monday rewarded with a contract extension until 2032.

His world champions are to begin their tilt at a second Nations League title with an eye-catching clash against Thomas Tuchel’s England at Wembley on Saturday.