Renard’s mad journey from the dugout at Cambridge to muting Messi
Herve renard is circling the refuelling station in the centre of the dressing room like Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman, and his audience hang on every word.
‘What are we doing here?’ renard demands to know from his Saudi arabia players. He is prowling and criticising in his crisp white shirt, pausing to gesticulate with dramatic effect.
‘Take your phone, you can make a picture with him if you want,’ he snaps as he orders them to change body language, raise energy levels and get closer to Lionel Messi.
renard is speaking english with a heavy French accent, with words translated into arabic, so there are two raised voices. ‘You don’t feel we are about to come back? You don’t feel it? Come on guys, come on, this is the World Cup. Give everything. Move yourselves. Come on.’
This is half- time against argentina on Tuesday, trailing 1-0 to a Messi penalty with captain Salman al Faraj injured and unable to continue. We all know about the thrilling fightback in the second half. Without it, we might never have seen this footage, part of a short film released on social media by the Saudi Fa on Thursday.
renard, 54, has a name to conjure images of an arch-villain from an Indiana Jones film, matinee idol looks to match and an exotic background of success in african football with a curious sojourn at Cambridge United in 2004.
renard arrived at Cambridge as assistant to globetrotting veteran Claude de roy, who brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the fourth tier of english football with cashmere scarves, John Lennon spectacles and a heavy side parting.
It became stranger still when Le roy declared he was merely there to tutor his protege renard. They started well, losing once as they finished the season mid-table then Le roy left for a job with dr Congo.
renard assumed full control. His views on nutrition, lifestyle and physical conditioning were not always well received by the seasoned pros of League Two.
They were not all keen to abandon ketchup and cola but most at the abbey Stadium recall him as unfailingly polite, generous with his time and open to the media.
‘a genuine, honest man,’ recalls dale Brooks, who became his assistant manager. ‘ He didn’t speak a lot of english but he quickly picked up the football phrases and if you walked around Cambridge you would see him sitting outside a coffee shop with his phrase book.’
a fitness fanatic, renard introduced three sessions a day during pre-season, the first of them at 5.30am and the last at 4pm.
‘The lads did it, a lot them had a lot of respect for him,’ says Brooks, who is now at aFC Sudbury but still in touch with the Saudi boss and exchanged messages after the Saudis stunned argentina.
‘I see he’s still in his lucky white shirt. He was very meticulous, passionate, but Cambridge were suffering at the time. In a better environment he would have flourished in english football.’
renard invested in young players, including a debut for 17-year- old goalkeeper John ruddy, who went on to play for england, but the Frenchman was sacked in december.
His nine months at the club were over but they remember him fondly. ‘always the perfect gentleman, always impeccably dressed,’ says Ian darler, the club’s head groundsman for 43 years. ‘When he left, I went to his home and he told me he would give me something to remember him by.
‘Then he pulled out a set of steak knives and forks and a fruit bowl that is still on the dining room table. It’s a very nice fruit bowl. My wife and I were talking about it when we saw him on the Tv at the World Cup. That’s Herve, he would never have anything to do with poor quality.’
Cambridge were relegated at the end of the season and spent a decade in non- league as renard went on to achieve great success as the first coach to win the africa Cup of nations with different teams, Zambia and Ivory Coast.
now he is back in the spotlight, taking Saudi arabia to new heights and trying to follow their historic victory with another against Poland today.