Just over two months after her departure from the French women’s soccer team and an elimination in the quarterfinals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Hervé Renard, 56, returns to Saudi Arabia, where he is at the head of the men’s team. selection. Objective of the double winner of the African Cup of Nations (in 2012 with Zambia and in 2015 with Ivory Coast): qualify the Green Falcons for the 2026 World Cup.
This is the second time in your career that you have returned to a country where you have already trained, after Zambia in 2011. What prompted you to accept this return to Saudi Arabia?
As in Zambia, where I returned just over a year and a half after my departure, the emotional dimension counted a lot in Saudi Arabia. I will work with coaches that I like, with players that I know very well, in a country where football is a very popular sport and which constantly improves its structures. I continued following the championship matches and those of the national team. Maybe it was a sign! There is also a great challenge to face with this qualification for the World Cup that is going to be won.
The situation is complicated since we have five points after four games, with six games remaining. Complicated, but not desperate. It is an exciting challenge. If we succeed, I will continue, with an eye on the Asian Cup of Nations that the kingdom will host in 2027. If not, we will say goodbye.
Are you not afraid of damaging your image as a man who pursues more sporting challenges than good contracts by returning to Saudi Arabia?
Money has never been my driving force when making decisions. When I leave Saudi Arabia in 2023, I agree to divide my salary by twenty, since I was earning 23,000 euros net in France. Let’s do the math… I have already rejected large contracts in China or Qatar in the past. If he had signed, for example, in Senegal, he would surely have earned more than in France.
But the question of my salary was not the most important in the discussions. What guides me is passion, human relationships, fervor. Today I have the opportunity to be freer in my decisions. I am a sensitive person and I need it.
Before his signing in Saudi Arabia, his name had also circulated in Nigeria and more recently in Senegal…
Nigeria made me a very good offer, but I rejected it for sporting reasons. As I have said several times, my goal is to play in the next World Cup. However, Nigeria only have three points after four matches, with a trip to South Africa. So I preferred to refuse because I honestly did not feel capable of taking on this challenge.
And with Senegal, who parted ways with their coach, Aliou Cissé, at the beginning of October? Your ties with this country are close, since you have a house there and you are married to a Senegalese woman…
There were discussions. He had one wish: to have Omar Daf, a former Senegalese international, as an assistant. But Omar is the coach of Amiens, in Ligue 2. And this condition could not be met immediately. Therefore, I decided at this very moment to withdraw my application. At the moment, Senegal has not yet chosen [Pape Thiaw, l’ancien adjoint d’Aliou Cissé, assure l’intérim]. Coaching Senegal, one of the best African teams, would have been a great challenge, it is true, but not all the conditions were met.
His name also circulated in Cameroon in April…
[Il coupe] While he had a contract with the French Football Federation (FFF). What bothered me was that people said he was asking for a lot of money. [la fédération camerounaise avait adressé une liste de noms au ministère des sports, où figurait celui de Renard, avec ses supposées prétentions salariales]. It was said that he asked for 200,000 euros a month!
However, this was completely false as there had been no financial discussion with Samuel Eto’o. [le président de la fédération] whom he had met in France. There are people who want to make believe that I am expensive. I didn’t like this way of proceeding. It’s not honest.
At the beginning of the year there was talk of his return to the Ivory Coast, during the African Cup of Nations (CAN), after the departure of Jean-Louis Gasset at the end of the first round. Do you regret anything?
No and I am happy with the result of Ivory Coast, which was proclaimed African champion. But what is a bit unfortunate is that the issue of my possible arrival has been made public, when it should never have been made. The people have spoken and, in these types of negotiations, that is not very appropriate.
Do you hope to one day work in Africa again?
Why not ? To try to win a third CAN. It is a fantastic continent, a true football land. I could have gone back to that, but that didn’t happen. But who knows what could happen in the future? I admit that I have a certain preference for the job of a coach, which consists of representing a country, with all the passion that that generates. I had the opportunity to work in countries where the national team represents a lot, and winning a CAN, qualifying for a World Cup, that gives very strong feelings. And I had the opportunity to experience them in Zambia, Ivory Coast and Morocco.
