The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) announced on Tuesday that Herve Renard had resigned as Saudi Arabia coach to take over the France women’s team ahead of this year’s Women’s World Cup.
The 54-year-old Frenchman was appointed as coach of Saudi Arabia in July 2019 and led the country to a famous 2-1 win over eventual winners Argentina at the World Cup in Qatar a year ago.
SAFF said in a statement on Twitter that it had agreed to terminate Renard’s contract at his request, adding that it wished him “every success in his future career”.
French soccer federation (FFF) sacked Corinne Diacre earlier this month after captain Wendie Renard said she would not play at the World Cup if the coach remained in charge.
The former Zambia coach said after a 2-1 friendly loss to Bolivia in Jeddah on Tuesday that he felt he had taken the Green Falcons as far as he could.
“I would like to thank everybody in Saudi for their support during almost four years,” he told reporters.
“I think I did the maximum with the team. I can’t reach another level so I prefer to be honest with everybody. Thank you again, it was fantastic time.”
