BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Following a twist of fate as Cote d’Ivoire made a dramatic sneak into the Africa Cup of Nations Round of 16, the Ivorian football federation has contacted their France counterpart for a ‘short let’ of Hervé Renard.
Sports Village square recall that Renard, now the coach of the French women national team, was the man that guided Zambia to beat Cote d’Ivoire in the 2012 Afcon final match.
He later switched to Cote d’Ivoire and handed them their second Afcon title in 2015 to be the only coach to have won the Afcon trophy with two different countries.
Ahead of their fortuitous Round of 16 qualification, Cote d’Ivoire had fired their French coach, Jean-Louis Gasset after a disappointing first round 4-0 loss to rampaging Equatorial Guinea.
Now without a coach and having a crunchy match against holders, Senegal on Monday, the Ivorian federation remarked that their goal was not to remove Renard from the French women’s team, with whom he is under contract until August 2024 for the Olympics, but to get him involved over a short period.
The president of the Ivorian football federation, Yacine Idriss Diallo, reportedly made a desperate contact with his namesake and president of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo for urgent help as the Round of 16 match is getting nearer.
He argued that French Football Federation (FFF) agreement would have a positive impact for the FFF on the continent.
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