Zinedine Zidane outlines plan to become France manager
Zinedine Zidane has outlined his plan to become the next manager of the France national team as the former Real Madrid boss opened up on how his 'life changed' after retirement. Zidane has managed Los Blancos over two stints and enjoyed overwhelming success, which includes winning the Champions League three times and La Liga twice at Santiago Bernabeu.
France's 1998 World Cup-winning captain, Didier Deschamps took charge of the national team in 2012, at a time when Les Bleus were struggling in international football. They had failed to go past the World Cup group stages in 2002 and 2010 and their European Championship performances were below par. Deschamps built a strong squad block by block, which went on to dominate world football for more than a decade under his tutelage. They reached the final of Euro 2016, where they were stunned by Portugal as Cristiano Ronaldo won his first international title.
France then went on to win the 2018 World Cup as they showed their dominance, while Kylian Mbappe announced his arrival at international level. France then came very close to winning back-to-back trophies as they once again reached the final in Qatar, but suffered heartbreak on penalties after a nail-biting clash, as Lionel Messi lifted the world title. After spending more than a decade as France's head coach, Deschamps has announced that he will leave his role at the end of the 2026 World Cup in North America.
President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States wants to help China, not hurt it, striking a conciliatory tone days after threatening an additional 100 percent tariff on the world's second-largest economy.
Trump's statements on Friday as well as his threat to cancel a meeting with Xi later this month sent Wall Street stocks tumbling into negative territory as traders worried the trade war between Washington and Beijing could reignite.
"The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!" Trump said in Sunday's post on Truth Social, adding that "respected President Xi (Jinping)... doesn't want Depression for his country."
Trump on Friday said that he would impose the extra levies from November 1 in response to what he called "extraordinarily aggressive" new Chinese export curbs on the rare-earths industry.
Beijing, in turn, accused Washington of acting unfairly, with its Ministry of Commerce on Sunday calling Trump's tariff threat a "typical example of 'double standards.'"
The ministry said Washington had ratcheted up economic measures against Beijing since September.
"Threatening high tariffs at every turn is not the right approach to engaging with China," it said in an online statement.
Chinese goods currently face US tariffs of 30 percent under levies that Trump imposed while accusing Beijing of aiding in the fentanyl trade as well as unfair trade practices.
China's retaliatory tariffs are currently at 10 percent.
Rare earths have been a major sticking point in recent trade negotiations between the two superpowers.
They are critical to manufacturing everything from smartphones and electric vehicles to military hardware and renewable energy technology but produced and processed almost exclusively by China.
Source: AFP
