Frenchman Herve Renard has been officially confirmed as the Morocco national team coach.
The tactician’s appointment to the post follows the resignation of Baddou Zaki last Wednesday.
According to BBC, Zaki had received a great deal of criticism for lack of coordination with his two assistants and decided to leave, adding that the decision was by mutual consent.
Renard has been highly successful in terms of coaching national teams in Africa, having won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title with Zambia in 2012 and Cote D’Ivoire in 2015.
He was named Coach of the Year in 2015 by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), defeating Faouzi Benzarti of Tunisian club Etoile Du Sahel and Patrice Carteron, who won CAF’s Champions League with TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Frenchman has often been linked to coaching jobs with various national teams on the continent, including Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa. His new adventure on the continent will see him headed to North Africa.
Now that Renard is confirmed as the new Morocco coach, his first priority is to secure qualification for the 2017 AFCON in Gabon, while also looking to qualify the team for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Renard mentioned these targets at his press conference unveiling, according to L’Equipe.
“The [Royal Moroccan Football Federation] president has laid out our objectives, the first being qualification for the 2017 African Nations Cup, that is not far away,” Renard declared.
“There is also the beginning of qualificaton for the 2018 World Cup, it’s a busy schedule,” he added.
The Moroccans currently lead qualifying Group F for the 2017 Nations Cup by goal difference alongside Cape Verde, with an interesting double-match against their islander rivals next month.
In 2018 World Cup qualifying Morocco despatched Equatorial Guinea 2-1 on aggregate, allowing them to progress to the next stage of qualifying which begins later in the year.
The Moroccan Football Federation (MFF) told BBC that Renard will also coach the local-based national team and the Under-23 side as it seeks to qualify for the Olympic Games to be held in Brazil this August.
In his Moroccan assignment Renard will be assisted by Patrick Baumel, his long-time assistant and former Moroccan international, Mustapha Hadji, who also deputized for Zaki.
The 47-year-old coach recently turned down the chance to take charge of Egyptian club giants Al Ahly. Renard has struggled to comfortably transition from national team to club football as a coach in recent years, with difficult periods at Sochaux and Lille in Ligue 1, but in Africa he has managed to achieve incredible success.
He started his coaching career at French club, Sporting Club de Draguignan in 1999, and was appointed to coach the Zambian national team in May, 2008. He is the only coach to win the Nations Cup twice with different nations.
