MOSCOW: Didier Deschamps was drenched before he took the first question during the press conference here at the Luzhniki Stadium after guiding France to their second World Cup title following their 4-2 romp against Croatia.

In their first triumph, two decades ago on home soil, Deschamps was the captain. Now as coach he joined Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer to win football’s biggest prize both on and off the pitch.

Before he could describe how it felt, French players gate-crashed the press conference room, danced around splashed their coach with water and energy drink. No one could blame them. They’d just achieved greatness and won a prize that has eluded so many of the greats.

Deschamps, though, didn’t believe he was a World Cup legend.

“It’s a great pleasure because it’s a very tight circle,” he said about emulating Zagallo and Beckenbauer. “They were technically better than me on the pitch. They were two beautiful players but I wasn’t so. Right now, I’m just happy to see my players’ joy. I had the enormous privilege for France 20 years ago but what my players did today was just as beautiful.”

As a player, Deschamps was famously dubbed as a ‘water carrier’, the man who provided legs to the brilliance of Zinedine Zidane and other more gifted players ahead of him. Determined as he was, he won every accolade there was to win with both club and country. It’s a fierce determination to win at all costs that has driven France to the title.

His World Cup-winning team had a striker who didn’t score a single goal, a water-tight defence that conceded six goals in the tournament while scoring three of their own, a couple of midfield runners who had endless stamina to prevent the opposition from taking control.

But then, he also had Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba. They picked their moments to shine, doing just enough to see France past the finish line. In those moments, they were so good that they finished off the opposition. One can only imagine what if they can do that for the duration of the 90.

But then, it wouldn’t be possible to maintain such a tempo throughout. The French team need those breaks, when Olivier Giroud — who didn’t score a goal at the World Cup — drops back to defend or when he employs the first line of a high press. His running gives the time to Mbappe and Griezmann to catch their breath and become effervescent again.

“I haven’t scored at this World Cup but it means nothing in comparison with the face of us winning back the world title,” he told reporters afterwards. “I gave all of my strength for the sake of the victory.”

That was the thing with France at the World Cup. A focus on the collective was the key. Everyone gave their all. It’s the mentality that Deschamps has honed. Griezmann, France’s star of the tournament, refused to be called ‘Grizou’, the nickname being used to compare him with Zidane.

“Antoine has great qualities but is also extremely humble,” said Deschamps. “He knows he lives thanks to the collective. There are individual talents that made the difference — him, Kylian, Raphael Varane and Samuel Umtiti — bit the way this was built in a way that they’ve done everything together on and off the pitch.”

It’s a triumph that took six years in the making. Deschamps was hired after the Euro 2012. A quarter-final exit at the last World Cup was just the beginning. France went all the way to the Euro 2016 final on home soil only to lose to Portugal.

“It was very painful,” Deschams said in hindsight on Sunday. “Maybe if we had been European champions we may not have been World Cup winners today. Two years ago, I had given too much emphasis on the European final. We stayed more relaxed today.”

One of the most relaxed figures on the pitch was Mbappe. The forward shows maturity beyond his age. On the biggest stage of them all, he doesn’t vanish. Instead, he rises to the occasion. At 19, he became only the second teenager after Pele to score in and win a World Cup final. Deschamps challenged the youngster to win another one.

“I hope he wins a World Cup again,” said Deschamps. “He has already done a lot but you never know. Back in 1998, Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet were 20 but they never won it again.”

Henry and Trezeguet went on to another final in 2006, which France lost. The new era that this victory will herald, though, looks different. In this team, Mbappe seems destined for more. The current France side may not be as expressive as its previous iterations but it’s a delight to watch when it is at its blistering best.

Published in Dawn, July 17th , 2018