Hervé Renard, who had just driven to Saudi Arabia, was confirmed as coach of the French National Team less than four months before the World Cup.
A few months ago, in Qatar 2022, Hervé Renard led Saudi Arabia, the team that put La Scaleneta in trouble before its consecration. Now, the Frenchman has before him a difficult mission at the head of the French women’s team: to get him out of the crisis he is in after the dismissal of Corine Diacre to less than four months of the World Cup.
The French Federation indicated that Renard, who until last Tuesday was Saudi Arabia’s men’s coach, will be in charge of the “bleus” until August 31, 2024, with two key appointments: the World Cup of Australia and New Zealand that will begin on July 20 and the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Renard will offer a press conference this Friday in which he will reveal his first call for the friendlies on April 7 in Clermont-Ferrand against Colombia and on April 11 in Le Mans against Canada.
His appointment was taken for granted after the defeat against Bolivia last Tuesday, when the coach asked the Arab federation, with which he had a contract until 2027leave the position of selector and, even, paid compensation out of pocketas published by the newspaper L’Équipe.
The technician she will now begin her path in women’s football after having become the last World Cup in Qatar to defeat Leo Messi’s Argentina, on the first day of the group stage, before Lionel Scaloni’s men won the trophy.
After that match, Renard had predicted that La Scaloneta would not only advance to the group stage, but would also ultimately be the champion. And it didn’t fail.
Renard will thus return to his country, where he has not had the best results of a resume embellished in African and Asian national teamsin which two titles of the Africa Cup of Nations stand out, the one in 2012 with Zambia and the one in 2015 at the helm of the Ivory Coast.
She has no experience in women’s football, although she does have experience in French football, where she led Sochaux in 2013 and Lille in 2015, without good results.
A France in turmoil
The 54-year-old coach takes charge of a team in full convulsion, after the captain Wendie Renard put an end to his international career on February 23 in disagreement with the work of Diacre, who led the national team since 2017.
The Lyon player was followed by other emblematic ones, such as the Parisians Marie-Antoinette Katoto y Kadidiatou Dianiwhich led the French Federation to open an investigation that culminated in the dismissal of Diacre on March 9 by the “fracture of no return” in the locker room and the “difference with the requirement of the high level”.
Renard’s first task will be to restore peace within the the semifinalist team in the last Eurocopa and that she was the host of the last World Cup, in 2019.
To do this, he must rely on the leadership skills that he has already used in teams such as Zambia, Angola, the Ivory Coast or Morocco, which he qualified for the 2018 World Cup, ending the 20-year absence of the Atlas lions among the elite. .
With information from EFE
