It's official, the 67-year-old technician nicknamed "Coach Vahid", who resigned in early August from FC Nantes where he was in post since the end of 2018, arrives at the head of the Atlas Lions replacing the French Hervé Renard. The Franco-Bosnian coach was named Thursday new coach of the national team of Morocco, announced the Moroccan Football Federation [FRMF].
In Nantes, the alloy had never really caught between the former scorer and leaders canaries and divorce, become unavoidable, materialized on August 2, Halilhodzic having decided to leave "head up" after a final match friendly against Genoa [1-1].
First goal: the 2022 World Cup
Since a first passage marked by a victory in the African Champions League in 1997 with Raja Casablanca, Halilhodzic has kept a good rating in Africa. In 2014, he also led Algeria to the eighth-finals of the World Cup, for the first time in its history.
"The participation in the World Cup (2022, ed) is for me the first goal," said Halilhodzic at a press conference Thursday. The goal will also be to forget the surprise defeat last month of the Atlas Lions in the round of 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
Halilhodzic preferred to other prestigious options
CAN-2004 finalist and quarter-finalist at the 2017 edition, Morocco was eliminated on July 5 by Benin [1-1, 4 tab 1], however reduced to ten and novice at this stage of the competition . Two weeks after this early elimination for one of the strongholds of African football, the coach Hervé Renard announced his resignation, 41 months after his arrival, before becoming the coach of Saudi Arabia in late July.
Halilhodzic has been preferred to other prestigious options. According to the local press, contacts were made with Laurent Blanc, who came to the site last week to discuss with FRMF management, but without reaching an agreement.