Fabien Barthez Returns to France National Team with Zidane

Fabien Barthez is back with France – and back alongside Zinedine Zidane.

The French Football Federation (FFF) confirmed on Thursday that the 1998 World Cup-winning goalkeeper will join Zidane’s new backroom team with responsibility for the national side’s goalkeepers.

Now 55, Barthez reunites with his former teammate from that golden summer on home soil, when France lifted their first World Cup and both men became icons of a generation. This time, the shaved head and the gloves return in a very different role, but with the same crest on his chest.

Barthez’s brief is clear: oversee and shape the goalkeeping department for Les Bleus. It marks a formal return to the national setup for a man who has already seen the inner workings of the team from the sidelines. He previously worked as a consultant with France under Raymond Domenech and Laurent Blanc, but he had no part to play during Didier Deschamps’ long 14-year reign.

His coaching journey has been sporadic. Barthez spent a short spell on the Toulouse staff between 2020 and 2021, a modest note compared to his playing career, which took him from Toulouse to Monaco, then to Marseille and Manchester United, where he collected titles and a reputation as one of the most daring goalkeepers of his era.

Zidane, appointed France head coach on July 28 to succeed his former teammate Deschamps after the World Cup semi-final exit, is wasting no time surrounding himself with trusted lieutenants.

Alongside Barthez, the FFF announced a series of appointments that give the new regime a distinctly familiar feel for anyone who followed Zidane’s time at Real Madrid. David Bettoni and Hamidou Msaidie come in as assistant coaches, both long-time collaborators who stood next to Zidane during his two spells in charge at the Bernabéu. They know his methods, his standards, and the intensity he demands.

Gregory Dupont also joins the setup, named “Strategy and Performance Advisor”. He, too, worked with Zidane at Real Madrid, and his arrival underlines the new coach’s desire to build a staff he already trusts in high-pressure environments.

The picture is taking shape: Zidane at the helm, Barthez with the goalkeepers, a Madrid-tested core of assistants around them. Familiar faces, new stakes.

Zidane, 54, will lead his first France training camp in September, the true beginning of his tenure on the pitch rather than on paper. The opening test comes quickly and away from home: a Nations League match in Turkey on September 25.

That night will offer the first real glimpse of this new French era – Zidane in the technical area, Barthez back in blue, and a country waiting to see if a legendary partnership can write another chapter.