Ali Maali (Dubai)
The French school was able to make its mark in the African Nations Cup finals throughout its history, and before the launch of the 33rd edition in Cameroon, two French coaches enjoy a special place in the “black continent,” Claude Leroy and Hervé Renard.
Claude Leroy holds the record for the most participation of any coach in the history of the African Nations Cup with 9 times, as well as the largest number of teams led by any coach in the history of the largest tournament in the continent with 6 different teams.
The French coach became one of the symbols of the “African Nations”, after setting a record to participate in the finals nine times, and with 6 different teams, and won the title only once with Cameroon in 1988.
Leroy began his African adventure when he trained Cameroon in 1985 and led the “Lions” to second place in Egypt 1986, then to achieve the title two years later in Morocco.
The coach, nicknamed “The Traveler”, appeared twice with the Senegalese team in Algeria in 1990 and at home in 1992, and waited until the 2007 edition to participate in the Nations Cup for the fifth time, and with a third team, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, two years later he trained Ghana and then appeared for the second time with the Democratic Republic of the Congo in South Africa 2013.
In Equatorial Guinea in 2015, Le Roy participated in the Nations Cup with another team, Congo, and the ninth participation in the tournament was with a sixth team, Togo, in 2017.
The other Frenchman, Renard, nicknamed “The White Magician”, is the only coach to win the African Nations Cup with two different teams, Zambia (2012) and Côte d’Ivoire (2015), and he came to the African continent for the first time, as an assistant coach with Leroy himself with Ghana in 2008.
Renard participated in 6 editions of the African Nations Cup with 3 different teams: Zambia (2010, 2012 and 2013), Côte d’Ivoire (2015) and Morocco (2017 and 2019).
The record for Renard was because he is the only coach in the history of the African Cup of Nations to win the title with two different teams in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea 2012 when he led Zambia to the first title in its history 3 years later.
In Equatorial Guinea, Renard won the title for the second time in his history with Côte d’Ivoire, and no other coach has managed to win the Nations Cup with two different teams.
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