France's World Cup winning captain Didier Deschamps called time on one of the most successful playing careers in footballtoday when he agreed to join French First Division giants Monaco as technical director, his agent Jean Werth announced.
By signing on as technical director the 32-year-old, who also won two European Cups and captained France to the Euro 2000 title, avoids theproblem of not having a coaching diploma which is normally obligatory to be a coach under French rules.
Monaco President Jean-Louis Campora was delighted with his catch.
"This is the happy conclusion of my initiative," he told AFPtoday after tracking Deschamps for some time.
Deschamps, France's most capped player with 103 appearances still had two years remaining on his contract at Champions League finalistsValencia but played just 20 times for them in all competitions this season, will sign the four year contract on Monday.
"Didier Deschamps has decided to end his playing career and will be in Monaco on Monday to meet Campora and to sign a contract as technicaldirector," Werth said.
Deschamps, once dismissed by Eric Cantona as a glorified water carrier, replaces Claude Puel, who was sacked last week after a poor seasonin which they failed miserably to defend their title and even missed out on a place in European competition next season. -AFP