Having replaced Roberto Mancini at the helm, the familiar face of the French coach is back on Australian soil for a crunch World Cup qualifier
It is just under two years since Saudi Arabia flipped the script to open their 2022 World Cup with a shock come-from-behind triumph over eventual champions Argentina in Qatar. While a pair of chastening defeats to Poland and Mexico ensured the Green Falcons quickly came crashing back to earth and were eventually eliminated at the group stage, there were enough signs of progress to give them hope for the future, even without obvious hints of grander plans to come.
“We have made history for Saudi football and it will stay for ever, that is most important, but we also need to look forward,” head coach Hervé Renard said at the time. The Frenchman would leave his post the following year to take charge of France ahead of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, but Saudi Arabia continued on its march towards becoming a football powerhouse of the region by securing the 2027 Asian Cup, while huge sums of money and big-name stars were ploughed into their domestic league. In perhaps the pinnacle of the broader project, Saudi Arabia – as the sole bidder – is almost certain to be named the host of the 2034 World Cup later this year.
He’s back 💚
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The finishing touches were meant to be put on the men’s national team ahead of hosting one, and likely two, showpiece events by Roberto Mancini, an esteemed coach who had won Euro 2020 with his home nation Italy as well as a host of domestic cups and league titles. But a volatile reign got off to a shaky start with senior players quickly sidelined and soon saw Saudi Arabia knocked out of the 2023 Asian Cup by an out-of-sorts South Korea in a last-16 penalty shootout that their coach walked away from before its conclusion.
Mancini apologised for his early exit in Uzbekistan but the damage was largely done without improved results that might have turned the mood around. When the Saudis limped through the second round of 2026 World Cup qualification to finish runners-up behind Jordan, then failed to make the most of a kind start to their fixtures in a challenging group in the next round, Mancini’s seemingly inevitable departure was sealed.
With momentum stalling on the pitch, Saudi Arabia have looked back in search of a way forward. Renard is back in charge with the hope that he can again share around his magic dust that tends to lift spirits and get a playing group to rise above their supposed level. With a strong record of qualifying for World Cups, the 56-year-old was the ideal replacement of those available, which was in part due to Australia going with local product Tony Popovic to take over from Graham Arnold.
Few would have blamed Football Australia if Renard’s heroics with Saudi Arabia, as well as previous success when guiding Morocco to the 2018 World Cup and leading Zambia and Ivory Coast to African continental titles, had piqued their interest. But it is the Frenchman’s tenure with his home nation’s women’s team that would just as likely have caught the eye of football bosses as much as fans across Australia. In less than a year and a half with the French women, Renard became the first coach to lead a side to victories at both the men’s and women’s World Cups, reached a quarter-final that finished with a dramatic shootout defeat to the Matildas at the 2023 tournament, and ended with a last-eight exit on home soil at the Paris Games.
Renard will now begin his second coming with Saudi Arabia against the side he was briefly linked with just two months ago, when the Socceroos host the Green Falcons in Melbourne on Thursday night. A firm grip on the critical second place in the group headed by runaway leaders Japan is up for grabs after both sides took only five points from their opening four matches in the group to currently sit level with Bahrain.
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Australia look more settled after moving on from their coach earlier and have had two matches under Popovic, though Renard will be familiar with much of the Saudi Arabia squad that he has inherited. He also has history of frustrating the Socceroos on home soil after the Green Falcons were able to grind out a 0-0 draw in the same phase of qualification almost exactly three years ago, then took all three points with a 1-0 victory in a dead rubber when their own spot in the 2022 World Cup was already cemented.
A pair of matches on the road against Australia and Indonesia will give Renard an idea of where the current Saudi squad is at, with extra time to work with them during the Gulf Cup in Kuwait from late December an added bonus, but much of his work should become clearer when the qualifiers kick off again next March. A pathway to the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada will remain open for the Saudis – and Australia – should the coming away matches against the Socceroos and Indonesia not go as planned, with third and fourth place going into another round of Asian qualification, but Renard has the experience to know time won’t wait for him to get his side moving forward again.
