Deschamps, 37, captained France to victory in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

Deschamps joined Juventus as a player in 1994 and won three Scudetti and one Champions League with the Turin club.

He later played for Chelsea in the English Premiership, winning the FA Cup, before ending his career in Spain with Valencia.

As a coach, he guided Monaco to a Champions League final in 2004.

Juventus said Deschamps had signed a two-year contract.

However, there is no guarantee he will spend those two years in the Italian top flight as Juventus are expected to be relegated early this week for their part in a match-fixing scandal.

If Juve are dropped to the second, or even third division as has been asked for by prosecutors in the case at a Rome sports tribunal, they could lose most of their star players.

Internationals such as new Italian world champions Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Gianluca Zambrotta, Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovich, France's David Trezeguet or even Czech Pavel Nedved are all likely to jump ship rather than spend a season in the lower divisions.