I think it’s more than safe to say that the FIFA World Cup has one of the largest fan following in terms of sports. Which is one of the reasons that Saudi Arabia’s win against Argentina is such a big deal. The other big reason that this is such a monumental moment is the fact that Argentina had been dominating FIFA since 1958. That is until, the Hervé Renard led Saudi Arabian team defeated it this year!
This time around, Saudi Arabia won against Argentina in a Group C match, by 2-1. And now the whole world is turning its attention towards the mastermind behind the team; Hervé Renard. Renard is a French professional football coach and former player who is the manager of the Saudi Arabia national team.
Born in 1968, Aix-les-Bains (Savoie, France), Hervé Renard began his managing career with Draguignan then went on to do assistant coach stints at Shanghai Cosco (China) and Cambridge United (England). After which, he was made the manager of the Cambridge team and also Nam Dinh (Vietnam) and AS Cherbourg (France).
Renard is the only coach to have led two different national teams to African Cup titles, Zambia in 2012 and Ivory Coast three years later. He was appointed The Green Falcon’s coach in 2019, and since then, the team has moved up in FIFA rankings from 70 to 51! Not to mention the fact that the Saudi Arabian coach was also responsible for helping Morocco qualify for their first World Cup in 20 years, back in 2018.
Clearly, Mr. Hervé Renard has a strong history of breaking barriers and cultivating results that history has never witnessed.
Hervé Renard also has quite the history of training teams in the most disciplined and rigorous ways, when it comes to fitness. So much so that former Cambridge player John Ruddy once discussed shaking ‘like a dog,’ during his workout sessions with Renard!
This is what excellence looks like folks. He’s made history for years throughout his career.
