After resigning from his post as head of the Saudi Arabian team, Hervé Renard was officially appointed coach of Les Bleues on Thursday, replacing Corinne Deacon.
The news is now official. Hervé Renard is the new coach of the French women’s football team. He was appointed on Thursday March 30 by the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF). Aged 54, he replaces Corinne Deacon, dismissed on March 9 following the withdrawal of several players. The former coach of Zambia, Angola, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Saudi Arabia will face many challenges in his new role.
Understand the specificities of women’s football
Despite his long experience as a coach – he has officiated in five different countries -, Hervé Renard is a novice in the world of women’s football unlike Gérard Prêcheur (PSG) or Sonia Bompastor (Lyon), cited for a time for the position. The sport obviously remains the same even if “We don’t manage boys like we manage girls”, warns Laurent Nicollin, the president of Montpellier whose women’s team is fifth in D1 Arkéma. “We don’t talk to them in the same way, there are codes to adopt. There are specificities in women’s sport, such as girls who are less fit during their period. You have to know how to take this into account, if they are less well physically.”
Beyond the differences that may exist between women’s and men’s football, it is above all the knowledge of the environment, of the French but also international players that the former Lille coach must quickly grasp. For this, Hervé Renard will be accompanied by Eric Blahic who was Corinne Deacon’s assistant between January 2020 and June 2021 and appreciated by French players. He had decided to leave his post because he couldn’t find his way “neither sportingly nor humanly“, as he had explained to West France. “Hervé Renard will be able to rely on assistants who have known women’s football for a while, who know the players and the atmosphere, and he will necessarily create a dynamic internally and bring his ideassays Marinette Pichon, former top scorer in the history of Les Bleues (81 goals). The fact that he leaves the Saudi selection to make himself available to the France team shows that he wants to take a step forward with the players.” Laurent Nicollin is also optimistic: “We will have to be very reactive but I think it is someone very competent who will get there”
Prepare for the World Cup urgently
The World Cup is already tomorrow. Hervé Renard has less than four months to prepare for the World Cup organized in Australia and New Zealand, from July 20 to August 20. A particularly short period which will offer very little room for maneuver to test several tactics or several different players. “In the past, we have seen breeders manage to win major competitions in six months. There is hope in that sense.”underlined Eugénie Le Sommer in the columns of The Team. A hope shared by Marinette Pichon: “We were perhaps expecting better results, but Corinne Deacon has still made this group progress and Hervé Renard will have material on which he can rely, with a team capable of playing in 4-3-3 or in 3-5-2, and a sizeable group of selectable players“.
Hervé Renard will quickly be plunged into the deep end. The next rally begins… Monday, April 3, with two friendly matches against Colombia, April 7 in Clermont-Ferrand, and Canada, April 11 in Le Mans. Then, the next gathering will be that of preparation for the World Cup with two new friendly matches: in Ireland, on July 6, and in Australia, on July 14. He will therefore have, in all and for all, only four matches before the World Cup, including the last two less than two weeks before the opening of the competition.
Resolder a group
The mandate of Corinne Deacon, which began in August 2017 and ended in a crash at the beginning of March, undermined the group unity of the France team. Already, five players had withdrawn from the Blue to request a change in the functioning of the selection. The speeches of Wendie Renard, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Kadidiatou Diani, Perle Morroni and Griedge Mbock resulted in the dismissal of the coach. Will he call them back, and will they agree to come back?
In addition, several executive players had been excluded from the selection by the former coach, including Amandine Henry, Eugénie Le Sommer, Sarah Bouhaddi and Gaëtane Thiney. Will they become contenders for a place again, less than four months before the World Cup?
In addition, the tricolor group was not spared by the case of the aggression of Kheira Hamraoui whose former teammate Aminata Diallo is suspected of being the sponsor. On February 22, 2022, during a victory against the Netherlands (3-1), Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani celebrated a goal by paying tribute to Aminata Diallo, not yet indicted, while Kheira Hamraoui was sitting on the bench. The latter had also been recalled by Corinne Deacon last February, after a year without selection. “The cohesion of the group, the involvement and the well-being of everyone, this will be the priority, assures Marinette Pichon. The first project to carry out will be to ensure that the girls will go to the French team with the pleasure and the desire to surpass themselves in order to perform well at the World Cup.