Hervé Renard, tipped to take over the French women’s football team, has resigned as coach of Saudi Arabia. He is “determined to return to France to lead a national team there”said Tuesday, March 28 to Agence France-Presse a source internal to the Saudi federation. “The game against Bolivia [mardi] evening is his last as Saudi coach”added this source, specifying that the Saudi federation had “accepted” his resignation.
Four months before the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the French technician should succeed Corinne Deacon, landed on March 9 against the backdrop of certain executive players – captain Wendie Renard, Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani.
The French Football Federation had been suspended for several days from negotiations between Hervé Renard and the Saudi federation. Time is running out as the announcement of the list of players selected for the April rally is expected on Thursday or Friday.
Multiple international experiences
“We tried to talk him out of it, but he was determined to go back to his country and lead a national team there. We can’t stop him from realizing his dream.”continued this source, without specifying whether Hervé Renard, under contract until 2027, had to negotiate this departure financially.
The former defender, double winner of the African Cup of Nations, should therefore be preferred to several candidates, including Jocelyn Gourvennec, interviewed by a commission appointed in recent days within the FFF to carry out the recruitment process, but who then declined the proposal.
Renowned in men’s football, where multiple international experiences have enriched his CV (Zambia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Saudi Arabia), Hervé Renard has no experience at the head of a women’s team. While there are only four preparation matches left – the first on April 7 in Clermont against Colombia – before the Blues enter the World Cup on July 23 in Sydney against Jamaica, Hervé Renard, if he is appointed coach, will have to get in tune with a world he knows little about.
