By Ghanaman
The Ivory Coast’s plan to hire experienced tactician, Herve Renard on loan from the French Football Federation (FFF) has fallen through.
The Ivorian Football Federation had fired former coach Jean-Louis Gasset following the 4-0 hammering of The Elephants by underdogs Equatorial Guinea in their final Group A match. The result left the host battling for survival and only confirmed passage to the knockout phase on Wednesday with Morocco’s slim 1-0 win over Zambia enough to see them through as one of the 4 best 3rd placed sides.
Now without a coach and heading into an epic encounter with the deadly Teranga Lions of Senegal in 4 days time, the Ivoriens had made contact to their French Counterparts to release the man who led them to glory in 2015 on secondment, till the end of the tournament.
The 55-year old Frenchman has been the coach of France’s National Women’s team since last March and his deal is set to expire after this year’s Olympics scheduled to be held in Paris.
It is believed that an agreement between both football federations couldn’t be reached which led to the collapse of the deal.
The widely traveled gaffer has had a long and successful career on the African continent, masterminding Zambia’s shocking continental triumph in 2012 and also delivering Ivory Coast’s second Afcon crown three years later, thereby becoming the first coach to win two Afcon titles with two different teams.
With their inability to facilitate the return of Renard, all eyes will be on the Ivorien Football Federation and who will oversee The Elephants from the dugout as they go head to head with Senegal’s Teranga Lions at the Stade de Yamoussoukro stadium, Yamoussoukro City next Monday, January 29.
Meanwhile, this wouldn’t be the first time such a deal has been reached in football if it had been successful.
In June of 2021, London giants, Chelsea loaned out their Under 18 coach, James Simmonds to AFC Wimbledon to work as an assistant under then head coach, Mark Robinson for the rest of the season.
Almost a year later in April 2022, Scottish side Dundee United got Southampton’s goalkeeper coach Ryan Flood on loan for the remainder of the 2022/2023 season.
