Hosts Côte d’Ivoire will play the round of 16 at the Africa Cup on Monday with a new coach – and are not the only team involved in unusual coaching capers at this tournament. Even the name Zinedine Zidane has been mentioned
Nothing will change anyway, that’s for sure. At least if you believe the people in Abidjan. The disastrous 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea to close out the group has clearly dampened the euphoria in the host country. And the change of coach, which took place in the middle of the tournament, has not lifted the spirits either. Perhaps also because Emerse Faé, who was suddenly appointed interim coach after the dismissal of Jean-Louis Gasset ahead of the clash against defending champions Senegal, was not the federation’s first choice.
In a spectacular move, the upper echelons of Ivorian soccer had tried to “borrow” Hervé Renard, the coach of the French women’s national team, until the end of the tournament in order to somehow save the home tournament, which had been so disappointing so far. Renard led Côte d’Ivoire to their last Africa Cup trophy in 2015, having previously triumphed sensationally with Zambia in 2012. And as an expert on African soccer, Renard is currently in Côte d’Ivoire anyway. Enough arguments to throw a coach into the middle of the tournament without any preparation. Or at least better than continuing with Gasset.
Even Ivorian Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé is said to have asked Renard to take the job, according to the coach in an interview with “L’Equipe”. “I didn’t have the right to say no, impossible,” said the 55-year-old coach, who beat eventual world champions Argentina with Saudi Arabia at the 2022 World Cup. But who had this right: the French Football Association. They had no use for so much nostalgia and refused to give the go-ahead
Coach worries for Morocco and Tanzania
This is not the first curious coaching caper during this tournament. No, the Ivory Coast are not even the first team to play a match without their actual head coach. After the first match, Tanzania’s Algerian coach Adel Amrouche was suspended for eight matches after claiming that Tanzania’s opening opponents Morocco exerted great influence over the African Football Confederation (CAF) and were able to select the referees for their own matches, among other things.
Morocco, on the other hand, have recently had to deal with their own coaching problems. Successful coach Walid Regragui, who sensationally led the North Africans to the semi-finals at the World Cup in Qatar, clashed so violently with opposing defender Chancel Mbemba on the pitch after the final whistle of the second game against DR Congo that he was suspended for two games – including the round of 16 against South Africa on Tuesday. After another hearing, however, the CAF lifted the ban. Amrouche should feel vindicated.
And then suddenly there was the name Zinedine Zidane. After the embarrassing group exit, 2019 winners Algeria are facing the departure of coach Djamel Belmadi – and in the course of this, the association made an enquiry to Zidane. However, the Frenchman of Algerian descent declined immediately. Apparently, according to reports from France, the former Real Madrid coach, who has not accepted a job for two and a half years, is still eyeing the job of French national team coach when Didier Deschamps’ contract expires in 2026. But there will be another Africa Cup before his contract ends …
