If the French Football Federation finally refused, Thursday, to “loan” the coach of its women’s team to Ivory Coast, the desire displayed by Hervé Renard to temporarily take on a double role came as a surprise.
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“The negotiations did not end favorably, it was because it was not supposed to happen. I would have loved to but destiny chose otherwise.” With these few words delivered to Canal+, Hervé Renard regretted, Thursday January 25, the choice of the French Football Federation (FFF) not to authorize him to temporarily take the reins of Côte d’Ivoire until the end of the African Cup of Nations.
By contacting its French counterpart earlier today, the Ivorian Federation (FIF) hoped that the current coach of the French women’s team would succeed Jean-Louis Gassetdismissed at the end of a disappointing group stage, where his group came very close to early elimination home. A way to create an electric shock among players – humiliated 4-0 by Equatorial Guinea in the last match – by offering the return of the man with whom she won her last CAN in 2015.
The Nations League Final Four in a month
If this desire of the FIF to bring back one of its heroes seemed completely legitimate, while his presence is suspended before its round of 16 against Senegal on Monday, Renard’s simple interest in this rescue mission raises questions about his involvement with the Blues. The timing for such an opportunity seemed particularly perilous. French women are indeed qualified for the Final Four of the Nations League and must face Germany there, in Lyon on February 23, before a possible final in Spain or the Netherlands.
Hervé Renard’s “loan” would certainly have been likely to end very quickly, in the event of the Ivorians’ exit against the title holder on January 29. However, the possibility of seeing them reach the continental final existed. However, this is scheduled for February 11. Less than two weeks away, therefore, from one of the biggest deadlines in the history of the French women’s team, which is still chasing its very first trophy in its 54 years of existence. A period of time far too short to be able to prepare for this decisive gathering in optimal conditions.
Even if fleeting, his duties in Africa would have also prevented the 55-year-old coach from being able to fully observe the next women’s club matches (the final day of the Champions League groups on January 30 and 31, and the Classic between OL and PSG in the championship on February 11), while he has already been seen several times at the CAN since the start of the tournament. But then why was the Blue coach ready to go on a mission, despite an obvious incompatibility between the two hats?
A passing “VRP”?
If he regularly presents himself as a “VRP” of women’s football, Hervé Renard – who will be free after the Olympic Games next August – has never hidden the fact that he does not see himself forever at the head of the France team. “I’m a bit of an ambassador for these girls, I’ll go back to where I come from, that’s for sure. But while I’m here, I have to fight for them, I won’t have much to gain personally but it doesn’t matter”, he said for example last October during a press point on the sidelines of the French women’s meeting in Norway (2-1).
“In the countries that I visited, the light did not come down again”, still punctuated in Oslo the one who successfully led the men’s selections of Zambia, Ivory Coast, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, when noting the regular lack of attendance in the stadiums for the matches des Bleues, as during meetings reserved for the press.
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A few days later before the return leg against the Norwegians in Reims (0-0), Hervé Renard had also said a little more about his future ambitions to the newspaper The union. “A few months ago, I met a gentleman who has done five World Cups. That’s my goal, I hope to retire in 2034. That leaves the 2026 World Cup, the 2030 World Cup and that of 2034. Will I get there? I don’t know. But these are my goals and my dreams.”then affirmed the native of Aix-les-Bains, who already has two participations in the Men’s World Cup (Morocco in 2018 and Saudi Arabia in 2022), and one among the women with France last summer.
This being said, the coach’s main deadline remains, at present, Paris 2024, for which the president of the FFF, Philippe Diallo, reiterated again on Tuesday that he expected at least a medal. Since their arrival with Les Bleues last March, Hervé Renard and his staff have maintained a healthy group atmosphere in the selection, after years of storm under Corinne Diacre. “There is a fragile osmosis, we must maintain it. The balance is always fragile”, Renard rightly declared about the competition between his internationals. There now remains an unknown: will this Ivorian desire for one day be quickly forgotten or can it shake up the blue alchemy six months before the start of the Olympics, on July 25?