{"id":4650,"date":"2026-02-12T22:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:48:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:48:23","slug":"renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","title":{"rendered":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current head coach of Saudi Arabia, acknowledged receiving two offers from African national teams before returning to lead the \u201cGreen Falcons\u201d for a second spell starting in October 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Renard (57) confirmed that he entered talks to coach Senegal, champions of the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, as well as Nigeria, but the negotiations collapsed before any agreement was reached.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cThe conditions were not right to lead Senegal, even though I wanted to take on that challenge.\u201d Pape Thiaw later took charge of the \u201cLions of Teranga.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cAs for Nigeria, I felt my chances of successfully steering the team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup were very limited,\u201d which was borne out when the \u201cSuper Eagles\u201d were knocked out in the African playoff by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n<p>Back to Africa<\/p>\n<p>Renard stressed that he will return to work in Africa again, especially since he achieved major successes on the continent\u2014most notably winning the Africa Cup of Nations twice: with Zambia in 2012 and Co\u0302te d\u2019Ivoire in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI don\u2019t know when it will happen, and I don\u2019t know where. If a well-organized federation presents a strong sporting project, that could interest me. Money is not the first criterion and never has been. I feel comfortable in Africa and I will go back there one day,\u201d noting that he owns a home in Senegal.<\/p>\n<p>Renard\u2019s Morocco experience<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Renard praised his time as Morocco\u2019s head coach from February 2016 to July 2019, during which he led the \u201cAtlas Lions\u201d to the 2018 World Cup in Russia\u2014their first appearance since France 1998.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about that stint, Renard said: \u201cI can say that 90% of what I take from that period is positive. I worked with a strong federation president (Fouzi Lekjaa) who did a lot to develop football in his country by providing excellent infrastructure and a highly professional framework.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cI contributed to the national team\u2019s rise and led it to the 2018 World Cup for the first time in 20 years, and I gave opportunities to players like Achraf Hakimi, Youssef En-Nesyri, and others. Today Morocco are among the top 10 to 15 national teams in the world. I\u2019m very proud to have been part of this project.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Renard is now preparing to lead Saudi Arabia at the 2026 World Cup, which will be the French coach\u2019s third consecutive World Cup appearance after 2018 with Morocco and 2022 with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>The draw placed Saudi Arabia in Group H alongside Spain, Uruguay, and Cape Verde.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current head coach of Saudi Arabia, acknowledged receiving two offers from African national teams before returning to lead the \u201cGreen Falcons\u201d for a second spell starting in October 2024. Renard (57) confirmed that he entered talks to coach Senegal, champions of the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4650","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sport","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Press English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1167\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\"},\"wordCount\":449,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\",\"name\":\"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco - Africa Press English\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg\",\"width\":1556,\"height\":1167,\"caption\":\"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press English\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco - Africa Press English","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","og_site_name":"Africa Press English","article_published_time":"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1556,"height":1167,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco","datePublished":"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco"},"wordCount":449,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg","keywords":["Africa"],"articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco","name":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco - Africa Press English","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-12T22:13:28+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-13T00:48:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. French coach Herve\u0301 Renard, the current h ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/02\/sm_1770938350.29107.jpg","width":1556,"height":1167,"caption":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/sport\/renard-explains-senegal-talks-and-praises-morocco#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Renard Explains Senegal Talks and Praises Morocco"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/","name":"Africa Press English","description":"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}