Derided as a water carrier in his playing days, not even Eric Cantona can deny Didier Deschamps has delivered the goods as France coach, uniting a national team that had the propensity to self-combust and who now stand on the cusp of back-to-back world titles.

Who is this man who has been at the helm of Les Bleus for a record 10 years?

1. He could have turned his back on football

Born in the rugby-loving city of Bayonne in south-western France near the Spanish border, Deschamps was a natural athlete who dabbled in rugby, handball and long jump. In fact, he was a school champion over 1,000m before he decided to make football his priority at 11.

He spent his youth career at lower league side Aviron Bayonnais, who have since renamed their 3,500-seater Stade Didier Deschamps in his honour.

2. He made his name through sheer hard work

Well, figuratively. Infamously dismissed by legendary French player Cantona as a water carrier because of his defensive midfield role in which he was seen to be just relaying the ball to “more talented” team-mates, Deschamps embraced the unflattering tag.

He said: “I was never going to be a talented player like Zinedine Zidane or Alessandro del Piero. So, I compensated for that flaw by being extremely hard working, and helping my team in every way that I could.”

Franck Leboeuf paid tribute to his former France colleague and said: “I think Didier is an example to players who want to succeed even though they maybe haven’t been given a special gift from God.”

3. He can’t stand losing, even to his son

He has exposed his son Dylan to different sports since he was born in 1996. But Deschamps admitted to going over the top at times.

He said: “I am sometimes unbearable. I am demanding with myself and with my partner.

“Sometimes I team up with my son and I’m a little more accommodating. But when I play (any sport), I always feel the need to make sure I win. Losing annoys me. Good thing, he’s a bit like me.

“We always tend to let the children win. Me, never. It was tough for Dylan.”

4. He is football royalty

After five fruitless seasons at Nantes, Deschamps’ playing career took off at Marseille, where he won two Ligue 1 titles and the Champions League. He carried on his Midas touch at Juventus with three Serie A crowns and another Champions League trophy. He was also an FA Cup winner with Chelsea.

On the international scene, he completed the World Cup and European Championship double in 1998 and 2000, and is only the second person after Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer to captain and coach his own country to the world title.

5. He built his managerial career and re-engineered Les Bleus

After hanging up his boots in 2001, he took over Monaco and continued winning, delivering the French League Cup and finishing second in the Champions League with the underdogs in 2004.

He then helped his former side Juventus win Serie B and promotion in 2007, before returning to Marseille and capturing the Ligue 1 title and three League Cups.

Taking over the national team in 2012 after some tumultuous years, Deschamps was the new broom that swept clean as he omitted Samir Nasri and Gael Clichy from his World Cup 2014 squad and reached the quarter-finals, losing to eventual champions Germany. They then lost the Euro 2016 final to Portugal, but the improvement was evident.

Cue the watershed moment in Russia 2018 when France blitzed their way to the top of the world.

Now, 10 years into the job, he is his country’s and this tournament’s longest-serving coach.

But Deschamps continues to reinvent – redeploying forward Antoine Griezmann as a midfield general, for example – and is now one step away from being only the second coach after Italy’s Vittorio Pozzo to win back-to-back World Cups.