Saying Saudi Arabia has a big hole to fill after the sudden departure of Herve Renard might just be the biggest understatement of the year, and we are only in April.
Renard’s name had been linked with the vacant French women’s national team role, but few really expected he would leave his job in Saudi Arabia, where he had achieved so much and stood to achieve so much more.
With qualification for the 2026 World Cup due to begin later this year, and the Asian Cup, for which Saudi Arabia are one of the favorites, in January and February of next year, it is far from an ideal time to be losing your coach.
But calling the Frenchman just a coach would be doing him a disservice; Renard was so much more than just a coach for Saudi Arabia.
In pure coaching terms Saudi Arabia may be able to replace Renard, especially when you consider some of the names being linked with the now vacant post — the likes of Jorge Jesus, Marcelo Gallardo and even Roberto Mancini and Zinedine Zidane — but the elegant Frenchman offered so much more than just Xs and Os.
A two-time winner of the Africa Cup of Nations, most remarkably with unfancied Zambia in 2013, he also qualified Morocco for the World Cup in 2018, their first appearance at the global showpiece in 20 years.
His track record in the game demanded respect. While Saudi Arabia qualified for Russia 2018, their opening day humiliation did little to further their international reputation. Much of the past four years was about earning back that respect, and the mere presence of Renard went a long way to achieving that.
As qualifying for Qatar 2022 continued and the fruits of Renard’s labor were bearing fruit, with Saudi Arabia finishing ahead of both Japan and Australia, his standing only grew larger.
Maybe it was the crisp and perfectly fitted white shirts that became a trademark of his tenure, but the 54-year-old had an aura about him, especially in the latter stages of his tenure after he had molded the Green Falcons into one of the continent’s most competitive teams.
The Frenchman’s standing reached stratospheric levels in Qatar when he masterminded one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history when Saudi Arabia stunned Argentina in their opening encounter.
More than just the result itself, it was the manner in which Saudi Arabia achieved it that won so many plaudits; taking the game to their more fancied opponents and outworking and outplaying them in a scintillating second half.
When footage emerged of his inspirational and impassioned halftime speech, the legend of Herve Renard reached all-time levels.
After their success in Qatar, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation was certainly not going to show him the door and having declared just months earlier “I’m here to stay” after signing a contract extension, Renard appeared to show little desire to move on. They appeared to be a match made in heaven.
Contracted until 2027, when they would host the Asian Cup for the first time, his ongoing presence on the sidelines gave the Green Falcons legitimacy and credibility on the global stage.
It is these intangibles that make Renard such a difficult man to replace, but that is the unenviable task now facing officials in Saudi Arabia.
His four years in charge of the Green Falcons already made him one of the country’s longest-serving managers and has coincided with a real upturn in the fortunes of Saudi Arabian football.
The national team is one of the favorites for next year’s Asian Cup and odds on to qualify for the third straight World Cup for the first time in 20 years, while domestically the Saudi Pro League is emerging as a real force in Asian football with Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival and Al-Hilal’s dominance of the AFC Champions League.
Meanwhile, the country also won the hosting rights to the 2027 Asian Cup and is emerging as a real force within global football.
With so much positive momentum in the Kingdom, this next appointment is one that Saudi Arabia simply cannot afford to get wrong lest it risk undoing all of the gains it has made in recent years.
Before the Renard era, Saudi Arabia had churned through eight coaches in the previous decade, one characterized by a lack of stability, vision and success.
And yet, remarkably, those traits are now synonymous with Saudi Arabia thanks in large part to Renard, but also the leadership of SAFF president, Yasser Al-Misehal, who has already said he would not be rushed into making a decision, with a replacement not likely to be named until June.
That already shows a maturity in approach from Saudi Arabia, who in the past showed a tendency to be overly trigger happy in their approach to hiring and firing managers.
Both the process and the outcome will tell us a lot about how much Saudi Arabia has improved and matured in recent years.
