Football: Laurent Blanc leaves Al Rayyan in Qatar after a failure

Europe 1 with AFP 2:55 p.m., February 13, 2022

Former Blues coach (2010-2012) and Paris SG coach (2013-2016) Laurent Blanc, who arrived in Qatar in December 2020, is no longer the coach of Al Rayyan, the club announced on Sunday. ranked despite ambitious recruitment.

The Chilean Nicolas Cordova "will replace the French Laurent Blanc", simply indicated the current ninth in the local Championship (out of twelve teams) which includes in its ranks the French world champion Steven Nzonzi, the Colombian James Rodriguez or the Algerian Yacine Brahimi.

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Results not commensurate with recruitment

"It was agreed to end the collaboration," a source within the club told AFP.

This development comes three days after another poor performance by Al Rayyan, held in check 1-1 against Al-Sailiya, the bottom of the Qatar Championship.

The sporting results have not been up to the recruitment of these foreign stars, which had led the supporters of this popular team in the wealthy Gulf emirate to call for the resignation of the tricolor coach, appointed at the end of year 2020 after a long period of inactivity of four years and six months.

Blanc's career stalled since 2016

The one who started on the bench of Bordeaux (2007-2010) has therefore failed to revive in Qatar a career at a standstill since his departure in 2016 from PSG, where the elimination in the quarter-finals of the League champions had cost him his job, despite a domestic hat-trick in the Championship, Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue.

It was a first experience abroad for the "President", aged 56, world champion in 1998 and European champion in 2000 with the France team.

Cordova, in charge of the Qatar U23 team, takes over from Blanc on the bench of Al Rayyan only for the time to end the season.