Hervé Renard leaves his post as Saudi Arabia coach, imminent arrival at Les Bleues

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The case is finally on the way to being settled. Hervé Renard, tipped to take over the French women’s team, has resigned from his post as coach of Saudi Arabia and is “determined to return to France to lead a national team there”, according to an internal source at the Saudi federation. “The match against Bolivia this (mardi) evening is his last as a Saudi coach,” the source added, adding that the Saudi federation had “accepted” his resignation. Hervé Renard’s term in Saudi Arabia therefore ended with a 1-2 defeat against Bolivia in a friendly.

Four months before the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Hervé Renard should take over from Corinne Deacon, who landed on March 9 against a background of internal revolt. The French Football Federation had been suspended for several days from negotiations between Renard and the Saudi federation. Time was running out as the announcement of the list of players for the April rally is expected on Thursday or Friday.

“We tried to talk him out of it, but he was determined to go back to his country and lead a national team there. We cannot prevent him from realizing his dream, ”continued this source, without specifying whether Hervé Renard, under contract until 2027, had to negotiate this departure financially.

A Comex of the FFF vendredi

The former defender, double winner of the African Cup of Nations, should therefore be preferred to several candidates including Jocelyn Gourvennec, auditioned by a commission appointed in recent days within the FFF to carry out the recruitment process, but who then declined the offer.

According to our information, an FFF Comex has been convened for Friday morning. Even if this point is not yet on the agenda, it was during this meeting that the four members of the committee (Aline Riera, Laura Georges, Jean-Michel Aulas and Marc Keller) who had already worked on the Deacon case, will propose to Philippe Diallo to ratify the name of the successor they have chosen, Hervé Renard therefore.

Renowned in men’s football, where multiple international experiences (Zambia, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Saudi Arabia) have enriched his CV… Hervé Renard has no experience at the head of a women’s team. While there are only four preparation matches left – the first on April 7 in Clermont against Colombia – before Les Bleues enter the World Cup on July 23 in Sydney against Jamaica, Hervé Renard, if he is appointed coach, will have to get in tune with a world he knows little about.

A list for the two friendly matches – April 7 against Colombia in Clermont-Ferrand and 11 against Canada at Le Mans – was scheduled for Thursday, before a rally in Clairefontaine next Monday. The World Cup (July 20-August 20) is coming in less than four months.

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