Four French coaches will be on the bench of an African selection during CAN 2025. They do not all have the same ambition.
Who says African Cup of Nations says French coaches in the area. This year, there are four of them dreaming of following in the footsteps of Claude Le Roy, Roger Lemerre or Hervé Renard, winners of the competition in the past. Overview of these little-known or forgotten coaches in France.
Sébastien Desabre (DR Congo)
While waiting for the intercontinental play-offs for the 2026 World Cup next March, the Democratic Republic of Congo hopes to build on its good momentum on the continent. At its head for three years: Sébastien Desabre. He is only 49 years old but has already operated in eight other African countries, from Algeria to Morocco via Angola, Cameroon and the Ugandan selection.
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Former coach of Niort in Ligue 2, Desabre helped the DRC gain nearly fifteen places in the Fifa rankings (56e). His first feat came in February 2024, when he reached the semi-finals of the last CAN. With Lille’s Chancel Mbemba and Ngal’ayel Mukau, or striker Cédric Bakambu (Betis Sevilla), the “Leopards” are one of the outsiders in the competition.
Patrice Beaumelle (Angola)
Having failed to qualify Angola for the World Cup was fatal to Pedro Gonçalves, sacked last September, just three months before the CAN. His misfortune brought happiness to Patrice Beaumelle, former assistant to Hervé Renard during his two coronations on the continent (Zambia 2012 and Ivory Coast 2015). Algerian champion with the MC Alger club in 2024, he bounced back after disappointments at the head of the Ivorian selection (2020-22).
For him, the CAN “is the celebration of the biggest football continent”as he described it to The Voice of the North . A former modest player who began his reconversion as an assistant at Nîmes, the 47-year-old Frenchman cannot have any illusions about Angolan ambition at the CAN. The “black antelopes” have never gone beyond the quarter-finals.
Gernot Rohr (Benin)
This is a well-known name in France, a country where he spent so much time that he ended up acquiring nationality. Gernot Rohr, a former German defender, spent almost his entire playing career at the Girondins de Bordeaux (431 matches), with whom he was three times champion in the mid-1980s. He then took his place on the bench, with a UEFA Cup final in 1996, lost by Bixente Lizarazu, Zinédine Zidane and others.
The rest was more moving. Créteil, Nice, Ajaccio, Nantes, then the African selections: Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso and especially Nigeria for five years, with a third place at the CAN 2019. The former (brief) teammate of Franz Beckenbauer at Bayern Munich has led the Benin team since February 2023. At the CAN, getting out of a group which includes Senegal and the DR Congo would be a feat for the “Cheetahs.”
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Eric Chelle (Nigeria)
Of the four, he is surely the one who has the best chance of lifting the trophy in January. Eric Chelle has been coach of Nigeria for almost a year, three times winner of the CAN, 16 times in the last four (record shared with Egypt) and finalist two years ago. Chelle, a former Ligue 1 defender (Lens, Valenciennes…), was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, to a French father and a Malian mother. It was this country that he subsequently represented (6 caps).
He was even the coach after experiences in France on the benches of Athlético Marseille, FC Martigues and US Boulogne. With the “Eagles”, he reached the quarters of the last CAN, in 2024, eliminated by the future Ivorian champions. He is now responsible for “super eagles” (Super Eagles, the nickname of Nigerians). The pressure is real: Nigeria was deprived of the 2026 World Cup by DR Congo last month. “The Congo guy did voodoo during the penalty shootout”he had cursed hotly before apologizing.
