Claude Le Roy has signed a new deal to coach Togo’s national football team until 2019, extending his coaching career in the African continent of almost 30 years by another three.
The Frenchman has worked in the continent for almost 30 years and has coached at a record eight African Nations Cup finals, only failing to reach the quarter-finals once and winning the tournament with Cameroon in 1988, reported L’Equipe, a French newspaper.
He took Congo to an unexpected last eight place at the tournament in Equatorial Guinea in 2015 and resigned from the job in November despite leading the country to the next stage of World Cup qualifiers.
L’Equipe said on Wednesday that the 68-year-old would take over from Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet and be joined in Togo by his long-time assistant Sebastien Minier.
Togo are currently third in their qualifying group for the African Nations Cup in Gabon, two points behind leaders Liberia, who they would meet in June.
The side took one point from home and away matches against Tunisia last month and were dumped out of the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup after a surprise 4-0 aggregate loss to Uganda in the second knockout round in November.
Le Roy hope to persuade the nation’s top striker, Emmanuel Adebayor to return to the national team on a more consistent basis – the Crystal Palace forward missed the away match in Tunisia but pitched up for the return in Lome.
BizWatchNigeria recalled that the 68 years old coach’s ultimate dream was to handle Nigeria’s national team and this has been elusive.
