Zidane, Klopp start fresh and Ronaldo goes on as European national teams return after World Cup

GENEVA — Champions League-winning coaches Zinedine Zidane and Jürgen Klopp debut in their new careers this week when national team soccer returns in Europe after the World Cup, with Cristiano Ronaldo still in action at 41.

The Zidane era starting for France at Turkey and Germany under Klopp in the Netherlands highlight the Nations League program filling the first four-game, two-weekend break on the FIFA international calendar where coaches are the fresh attraction as much as their players.

Thomas Tuchel is a third Champions League winner among the 54 European national teams in action, with his England hosting Spain on Saturday in what was so close to being the World Cup final in July.

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente — with a fresh contract extension through 2032 — is the current king of international coaches as a low-key hire in 2022 promoted from within the federation who then won European and world titles at the first attempt.

Not bad for a 65-year-old who coached the grand total of 11 first-team club games in his career, all in the Spanish second tier, 15 years ago for Alavés.

This break from club soccer in the European fall for national teams is the first in the reshaped international match calendar managed by FIFA. That schedule mandates when clubs must release players to national teams.

Club leaders had for years wanted fewer but longer international breaks to limit disruption in their seasons and ensure players from outside Europe made fewer long-haul flights to represent their country.

FIFA pushed the idea in 2021 in its failed plan to play World Cups every two years instead of four. In 2023, FIFA approved combining two-game breaks in September and October into a single block of four.

Zidane was an elegant, all-time great player and then a dominant coach. He won three straight Champions League titles in his first 2½-year spell at Real Madrid into 2018.

He finally got to succeed former club and country teammate Didier Deschamps, and greatness is expected from Zidane's mentoring of a richly talented Les Bleus squad captained by Kylian Mbappé.

"I've waited five years for this chance, so that's why I'm a bit emotional," the 54-year-old Zidane said in July after getting the job that seemed destined since his second Madrid spell ended in 2021.

Zidane inherits a team stopped twice with ease at the semifinals by De la Fuente's Spain in the past two tournaments.

France did beat Spain in the 2021 Nations League final. The path back starts Friday against Turkey at Izmit then three days later in Brussels against Belgium. Italy and Belgium then come to Stade de France.

Klopp was denied a first Champions League with Liverpool in 2018 by Zidane's Madrid hat trick in Kyiv. The title arrived one year later against Tottenham.

Two years after leaving Anfield, Klopp takes over a Germany team seeming in need of his refreshed energy and inspiration. Germany last won a World Cup knockout game in the 2014 final and has not reached a Euros final since 2008.

Klopp made a big impact announcing his first squad: picking 44 players — two groups to play two games each — and wearing a cap with a slogan designed to reclaim the national flag from far-right politics.

The Klopp era starts at neighboring Netherlands on Thursday, hosting Greece in Augsburg and Serbia in Munich, then going to Greece on Oct. 4.

The other German star coach in play this week, Tuchel, had England within 10 minutes of reaching a first World Cup final in 60 years.

He claimed last week "99.9%" of fans don't focus on his choice of substitutions and tactics to defend a one-goal lead late in the semifinal that Argentina won 2-1. Still, it's a memory seared into the Three Lions' national soccer story.

Tuchel can start shaping a new narrative at Wembley on Saturday against World Cup winner Spain. Their group also includes Croatia and the Czech Republic.

Any doubt 41-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo would continue with Portugal after another World Cup elimination should have ended before the tournament was done. The federation hired a new coach in 72-year-old Jorge Jesus, whose previous job was leading Ronaldo and Al Nassr to a Saudi league title in May.

Ronaldo was duly named in the first Jesus squad last week, looking to add to 233 national team games and 146 goals.

Portugal is the Nations League champion and starts its defense Thursday hosting Wales.

It should be a first Erling Haaland vs. Ronaldo meeting Sunday in Oslo. Only one of Ronaldo's 233 Portugal games was against Norway, in 2011 when Haaland was aged 10. Now 26, Haaland already has 62 goals for Norway, including seven in just five games at the World Cup.

Scotland now has a Belgian coach (Sebastian Pocognoli ), Belgium a Dutch coach ( Mark van Bommel ), and the Netherlands a Spanish coach (Xavi Hernández).

Xavi has replaced Ronald Koeman for the second time in their careers, having followed the Dutch great into the Barcelona dugout in 2021. Xavi now leads the team he helped beat in the 2010 World Cup final.

Italy has not been a World Cup team for 12 years but looked back at its European Championship title win in 2021 to hire Roberto Mancini for a second time.

The 16 top-ranked teams play in four round-robin groups through November. The top two in each group advance to quarterfinals played over two legs in March.

A Final Four mini-tournament from June 9-13 will be hosted by one of the semifinalists.

A further 16 teams play in each of the second-tier League B and third-tier League C, with six low-ranked teams in League D. Russia is still banned from international soccer.

The final standings will help some teams enter qualifying playoffs in March 2028 for that year's European Championship.

___

See AP's full soccer coverage here

Related topics