France’s head coaching vacancy wasn’t open for long.
On Thursday — just three weeks after former coach Corinne Diacre was sacked amid a player revolt — the French federation announced that globetrotting coach Hervé Renard is the new manager for the women’s national team. His contract runs through August 2024, essentially through this summer’s World Cup and the 2024 Olympic games in Paris.
Renard takes the job just 116 days before France will kick off its group F schedule against Jamaica. His first matches in charge are much closer: France will host Colombia in just eight days, and have yet to announce a squad for the match. Per the French federation, Renard will announce his first roster on Friday.
That might be complicated, too, because team captain Wendie Renard (no relation) and star attackers Kadidiato Diani and Marie-Antoinette Katoto had all previously said they will reject France call-ups until some unspecified changes were made by the federation. While those changes were widely believed to be related to Diacre, her unpopular tenure was hardly the FFF’s only recent problem. It’s unknown if those crucial players are ready to come back yet or not.
Federation board member Jean-Michel Aulas said that the FFF had reached out to at least one other candidate, approaching Thierry Henry only for the legendary forward to withdraw from consideration. French reports said that the federation had also considered experienced Ligue 1 coach Jocelyn Gourvennec, Diacre’s former assistant Eric Blahic, Lyon boss Sonia Bompastor, Paris Saint-Germain manager Gérard Prêcheur, and the team’s all-time record holder for appearances Sandrine Soubeyrand (who currently manages Paris FC).
Renard’s unusual path
Renard, 54, doesn’t necessarily fit the profile for the coach of one of the world’s top women’s teams. After a playing career spent largely in the French lower divisions — save for a brief spell in the top flight at AS Cannes, alongside a then-17-year-old Zinedine Zidane — he began a meandering managerial career in 1999 with lower-level French side SC Draguignan.
From there, amid a spell working for a cleaning service, Renard bounced around: lower-league football in England, a move to Vietnam club soccer, posts with four different men’s national teams in Africa, and top-flight club positions in Algeria and France.
Renard’s longest spell anywhere is the job he just left, a four-year run as the manager of Saudi Arabia’s national team. There he led the team to qualify for the 2022 men’s World Cup and amid discussion of him as the tournament’s hunkiest coach, he notably got a win over Argentina in one of the all-time great upsets in the sport.
Renard has obviously experienced a lot, but he’s also in new territory moving over to the women’s game. France — especially in the midst of so much turmoil off the field — is a different sort of role than he’s used to working in. Outside of one short run with the Ivory Coast men’s team (where, it must be said, they won the 2015 African Cup of Nations), he’s arguably never been given a post with a team that sits among the favorites in their tournament.
Renard has the reputation of being a coach you turn to when you want to punch above your weight, which is sometimes not a transferable skill-set when it comes to running the show with a more highly-touted side. If he can bring the mentality and organization that comes with that sort of approach, and bolster les Bleues‘ confidence, France might finally be ready to fulfill their potential.
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