The French and Ivorian Football Federations are conducting negotiations for the latter to obtain the services of “The Fox,” Hervé Renard, the current coach of the French women’s national team, on loan, with the aim of saving the faltering campaign of the host of the African Cup of Nations, according to a source close to the talks.

Renard (55 years old) enjoys great popularity in Ivory Coast, after he led the “Elephants” team to win the continental championship title in 2015. He also won the competition as coach of Zambia in 2012, and supervised the Moroccan squad between 2016 and 2019 and led it to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Schedule of the knockout round matches in the African Cup of Nations. pic.twitter.com/UUGemWJaGK

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Renard signed a contract with the French Federation to lead the women's national team until the Olympic Games this summer after supervising the Saudi team in the Qatar World Cup, where the French team will compete in the Nations League semi-finals against Germany on the 23rd of next month.

The Ivorian Federation announced – the day before yesterday, Wednesday – that it had dismissed its French coach, Jean-Louis Gasset, due to “poor results”, two days after the historic defeat against Equatorial Guinea, 4-0, in the third and final round of the first group competitions.

Schedule of the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final matches | Sports | Al Jazeera Net (ajnet.me)

Ivory Coast began its home adventure by defeating Guinea Bissau 2-0, before losing to Nigeria 0-1 and then to Equatorial Guinea.

With 3 points, Ivory Coast awaited a gift from Morocco, which won over Zambia 1-0, to qualify for the final 16 through the gate of the best 4 teams occupying third place in the six groups.

In the eighth final, the home team and the fans will meet the Senegalese team that is nominated to retain its title at the “Charles Konan Bani” Stadium in Yamoussoukro next Monday.