Music playing, clapping, smiles, laughter. The French team? Surely not.
It’s 11am at the team’s hotel in Le Mans, south west of Paris. France are having some fun with their morning exercises ahead of their friendly against Canada that evening. It is only their second match under new manager Herve Renard, 100 days before the start of the Women’s World Cup.
Life in the French camp has not always been this rosy. Far from it. In February, France’s captain Wendie Renard announced her intention to boycott the tournament. Two weeks later, the French Football Federation (FFF) sacked head coach Corinne Diacre, and on March 30 Herve Renard (no relation to Wendie) was named as her replacement, swapping his position as Saudi Arabia men’s coach to lead the country of his birth.
When he took on the job, those around Herve Renard said: “Welcome to a beautiful mess”.
Preparations for World Cups are years in the making, but Herve Renard has had just over five weeks of contact time with his players. Ideal? No. But it’s a new dawn for Les Bleues.
Upon Diacre’s departure, the FFF said there was an “irreversible fracture” between players and management. It was a chance for France to finally turn over a new leaf.
The FFF secretary general Laura Georges led the search for a new manager with support from the federation’s head of women’s football Jean-Michel Aulas, Strasbourg president Marc Keller and FFF treasurer Aline Riera.
In fact, it was Renard who contacted Aulas to put himself forward as a candidate. He had already made known his interest in managing the women’s team via people close to the players. Jocelyn Gourvennec, the former manager of Lille, and Paris Saint-Germain Feminine head coach Gerard Precheur were the two other serious candidates.
Aulas approached Thierry Henry but France’s former record goalscorer declined and said, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he felt underqualified for the role.
Renard’s contract with Saudi Arabia, however, ran for another four years — and there was the matter of his salary. He would have to take a 90 per cent pay cut if he accepted the job. It wasn’t about the money — he is now being paid around €400,000 per year (£345,000; $450,000) — the key thing for him was he wanted to coach a team that could compete for trophies. When he agreed to the salary and said he would surround himself with women’s football specialists, the FFF’s minds were made up.
Captain Wendie Renard made her feelings known to the FFF about her preference; she has known Herve Renard for 10 years and has a good relationship with him.
Renard 🤝 Renard #FiersdetreBleues pic.twitter.com/L3xVFBQVB6
— Equipe de France Féminine (@equipedefranceF) April 3, 2023
His Saudi Arabia contract was terminated by mutual consent; the story goes that allowing a men’s coach to move to a women’s team looked good for the Saudis and it showed support for women’s football.
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So why transition from men’s to women’s football and take such a hefty pay cut? France’s new manager wanted a challenge. “I was promised hell, so we’ll go there,” he told L’Equipe.
Up until now, Renard has managed teams who were expected to perform but not necessarily win titles.
“It’s my passion for football, for the great competitions,” he said. “Once you’ve had a taste of it, you always want more.”
Then there’s the pull to do it with his native country, too. “You can be the richest man in the world, you can’t buy the emotions you feel,” Renard said. “It’s my country, it’s France. I’ve always been a sports fan, and not just of football. There are magical moments for French sport with world or Olympic championships.”
Some of the players were surprised at his appointment but also very proud that a coach with a proven track record in the men’s game was interested in them.
During the international break in April — Renard’s first in charge — he had just nine days to make his mark.
The France and Aston Villa midfielder Kenza Dali tells The Athletic : “When he introduced himself, he said: ‘I’m not going to change myself or my way of managing a team. I’m not managing a women’s team; I’m coaching a team’.
“I love that because everyone speaks about women’s football and it’s not women’s football, it’s not men’s football; it’s just football. We train for the same amount of time, we are just as passionate.
“When he started like this, I thought, ‘Oh, I quite like that’. He came with humility. He knows what it takes. His career speaks for itself. Obviously, we all know we don’t have a lot of time. He knows it as well.”
Before making his first squad selection in April, Renard and his staff made their way through a long list of 56 pre-selected players. His coaching team had analysed footage from domestic and international games because “he wants to know everything about his players”, according to Dali.
In camp, Renard held individual meetings with every player. He complimented Dali on her great season with Aston Villa and noticed she is always smiling.
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“I’m smiling when I’m happy with my football,” she said. “I can be difficult when football doesn’t work.
“He wants to know the player, but he wants to know the person too. That’s really important because when you leave for a competition, it’s two months together, 24 hours. People need to realise that if you don’t have the right personality that matches on the pitch and off the pitch, you can’t succeed in a competition.
“I already know what he wants from his team. He was really precise, really clear. I really had a good feeling with him.”
And what does he want?
“Win,” says Dali. “Finally, win something with France. They always tell me in England how on paper you have this team and it never worked.
“It actually never worked. Football is not the problem. We all know how to play football. Lyon have won so many titles and trophies and you have national team players for 10-15 years and France have never won anything.
“The problem with the French national team is how we get the extra per cent of togetherness when it’s complicated.”
Under Diacre, it was often complicated. She ruled with an iron fist and a toxic climate developed. But Renard has created a whole new environment, which has proved a radical shift from the way things were under the former manager.
Clear and consistent communication — hard to come by during Diacre’s reign — stood out to the players.
“He’s so good at communication,” says Dali. “That’s his strength. We were all really impressed with the first pre-match meeting with him.”
Renard demonstrated to the players the video of his half-time talk when his Saudi Arabia team were drawing 0-0 with Argentina at the 2022 men’s World Cup; they went on to defeat the eventual winners 2-1. At the time, Dali had reposted the video that went viral on her Instagram story.
“That was definitely him,” Dali says. “When I was sitting watching him doing the meeting in real life, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s quite impressive’. In reality, it’s better.’”
Their first camp in April was, in Dali’s words, “really intense” — a far cry from Diacre’s training sessions which lacked intensity and tactical emphasis. Renard also introduced some fun, with Teqball challenges.
« Victoire nette et sans bavure » 👌 @Vivi_Asseyi #FiersdetreBleues pic.twitter.com/5tFeKEwJKb
— Equipe de France Féminine (@equipedefranceF) April 4, 2023
“He is really demanding,” says Dali. “A lot of energy, really charismatic, a big voice, obviously screaming. You don’t have time to switch off during the meeting with him.
“On the bench, he is moving everywhere. He expends a lot of energy during the game. That’s what France needs. I feel like he’s the perfect person for the team. I do believe that. Now we will see.”
🥁 “𝘈𝘶𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘥’𝘩𝘶𝘪… 𝘢𝘶𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘥’𝘩𝘶𝘪… 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘦́… 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘦́…” 🎵#FiersdetreBleues pic.twitter.com/lZvd50LUrl
— Equipe de France Féminine (@equipedefranceF) April 12, 2023
It’s not entirely about the manager though. When Wendie Renard ruled herself out of the World Cup earlier this year, she pointed to the “system”. An entire management change was needed. The FFF has bolstered the numbers of France’s technical staff, whereas Diacre only had two assistants who doubled up as the goalkeeping and fitness coach, Renard now has six members to help him: two assistants, one data analyst, one goalkeeping coach and two physical-preparation coaches. Goalkeeping coach Gilles Fouache is the only survivor from Diacre’s coaching staff; the rest are new faces.
Renard brought with him his long-time friends from his Saudi Arabia coaching staff in assistant Laurent Bonadei and data and performance analyst David Ducci. The latter had also worked with him when he managed USM Alger in 2011, plus the Ivory Coast and Morocco national teams.
The 54-year-old Renard, however, has never worked in women’s football and knew he had a lot of learning to do. He was advised to have an assistant who was a women’s football specialist that was familiar with the team — and that is Eric Blahic, Diacre’s former assistant from 2020 to the summer of 2021, who stepped down from his role after their relationship deteriorated.
New physical preparation coaches were brought in — Thomas Pavillon and the former French international Sabrina Viguier, who played with captain Wendie Renard and Eugenie Le Sommer at Lyon — while the medical team has also been overhauled. There are now three new physios and a nutritionist assisting team doctor Vincent Detaille (who stayed).
Pre-tournament victories over Colombia, Canada and the Republic of Ireland gave positive signs, but a 1-0 friendly defeat against Australia shows there is plenty of work still to be done.
At their Sydney training site, the Valentine Sports Park, the players have smiles on their faces and are joking around — and it’s not just for show on social media. According to sources close to the players — who all wish to remain anonymous to protect their positions — the atmosphere is noticeably lighter and there are no longer cliques between groups of players. On the pitch, players are forming better connections between themselves and the staff.
La préparation continue 👊
https://t.co/MkPILlHRxQ pic.twitter.com/dOxGlk8leL
— Equipe de France Féminine (@equipedefranceF) July 18, 2023
Renard will often talk to individuals one on one to impart advice and there is open access to the physios, whereas previously players would have to be injured to see them. You would think all this would be the norm, but it did not happen under Diacre’s authoritarian regime.
When Renard was appointed, he and the FFF agreed on two key objectives: to reach at least the semi-finals at the World Cup and the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.
The question is whether he has had enough time with his team to bind them closer together. He has opted for a mix of young and experienced players and even recalled experienced internationals Le Sommer and Amandine Henry (now injured) who had been frozen out of the squad by Diacre.
“Everything has changed but the group is not new,” says Dali. “We all know each other. It’s just how quickly we need to switch on and adapt to what he wants. I always say the first quality that a player needs to have is adaptation — no matter where you play or the system.”
France will need to adapt given an increasing injury list. Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Delphine Cascarino, Henry and Griedge Mbock are out of this World Cup. There are also concerns regarding Selma Bacha’s fitness after she sprained her ankle against Australia last Friday. She will almost certainly miss France’s first game on Sunday but could be back for the rest of the group stage.
The players wanted a new head coach and now they have one. It’s time for them to deliver and, for some, the biggest hurdle is the mental challenge. The opening two games against Jamaica on Sunday and Brazil the following Saturday will be crucial to establishing some sort of tournament rhythm. This World Cup may have come too soon but what is clear is that Renard has laid down strong foundations for the future.
“I bet on France, maybe not winning — we don’t know — but at least do our best and show another face of ourselves.,” said Dali.
(Top photo: Andrew Wiseman/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
