Didier Deschamps has said former France and Juventus teammate Zinedine Zidane has "all the qualities" to replace him as coach of Les Bleus.
Speaking on French TV on Sunday, Zidane said he would love to coach the country for whom he played 108 times.
After being Carlo Ancelotti's assistant at Real Madrid last season, the ex-France captain is currently in charge of the Spanish club's reserve team -- his first senior coaching role -- but Deschamps told media that Zidane would be a viable candidate to succeed him.
"For the moment, he's in charge of a youth team. I don't know what he's going to do afterwards," said France's 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000-winning captain, who recently extended his contract to 2018 after guiding his team to the quarterfinals of last summer's World Cup. "But yes, he has all the qualities to be it."
French Football Federation president Noel Le Graet claimed Zidane had asked to meet him with a view to taking the position vacated by Laurent Blanc after Euro 2012.
Le Graet allegedly told the Ballon d'Or winner, who hung up his boots in 2006, he needed more experience in the dugout before being able to take on such a role.
Instead, Deschamps was appointed having taken Monaco to the 2004 Champions League final, steered Juventus out of Serie B and won the Ligue 1 title with Marseille following the end of his playing career in 2001.
After restoring the image of the national team after it had been badly tarnished by on-pitch failure and off-the-pitch indiscipline at both the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, Deschamps is in a strong position, well-liked by Le Graet, the media and the French football public.
Zidane's playing career has given him messianic status in France, but legendary coach Guy Roux told Europe 1 the former Bordeaux and Madrid star should not have revealed his ambitions publicly out of respect for Deschamps and due to his lack of coaching experience.
"He doesn't have the right to say that," said Roux, who transformed Auxerre from a boys' club team into Ligue 1 champions. "Can he stake a claim? Not at all. Right now, he's got a third division Real Madrid team who are in sixth place in the league. He first needs to coach big clubs for 10 years, to prove himself, like Didier Deschamps did.
"He needs to climb the ranks, take a Spanish or French team. You need to be a good coach, which means to observe, make a team, know how to motivate your players, handle their very big egos. He has competence in football, but you also have to know how to explain it."