Guest of the Podcast Africa Football Club, Hervé Renard lent himself to a delicate but revealing exercise: composing his eleven type of African players he trained during his rich career on the continent. A selection marked by its most striking experiences, especially with Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco and Ghana.
If he started as an assistant to Ghana (2007-2008), before taking the reins of Zambia, Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and Morocco, Renard still surprised by choosing as guardian Vincent Enyeama, which he rubbed shoulders in LOSC. “It was not with an African selection, but it is certainly the best goalkeeper I had under my orders”, he said.
In his defense and his environment, there are several major figures of African football. Two Ghanaians are there: Michael Essien, reference of the midfielder, and André Ayew. Four Moroccans complete this eleven, including Hakim Ziyech, despite the tensions between the two men. Nuance fox: “If he plays as he did at the 2022 World Cup, he is an exceptional player.” The other 3 lions of the Atlas are Mehdi Ben Aiya of which he made his captain, Achraf Hakimi and ourselves ourselves Mazraoui.
-Côte d’Ivoire, with which he won the CAN 2015, occupies a special place in his selection. There are four of his pillars there: the Kolo and Yaya Touré brothers, Gervinho, as well as Wilfried Bony, whom he describes as “a monstrous surface player, capable of scoring every occasion with a solid team around him”.
Surprisingly, no player from the African champion’s Zambia in 2012 appears in this eleven, although he quoted Stoppila Sunzu, described as “ super defender ”, While regretting that he remained unknown to the general public.
Note that Renard is currently coach of Saudi Arabia, a position he occupies for the second time after a first visit between 2019 and 2023.
