Can Herve Renard revive Tunisia's World Cup campaign?

Tunisia have turned to Herve Renard in a bid to salvage their 2026 Fifa World Cup campaign, appointing the charismatic Frenchman after a heavy defeat to Sweden. The Carthage Eagles parted company with Sabri Lamouchi following Monday's 5-1 loss, making them the first team to sack a coach after their first game at a World Cup finals.

The expanded 48-team format means Tunisia still have a chance to progress from Group F, but Renard has little margin for error when he takes charge against Japan on Sunday (04:00 BST). The 57-year-old will join a select group of managers to lead different countries at three successive World Cups, having coached Morocco in 2018 and Saudi Arabia in 2022.

During the 2022 tournament, Renard masterminded a famous group-stage win over eventual champions Argentina, despite Lionel Messi giving the South Americans an early lead. "[When] the federation contacted me, I didn't hesitate for a second," Renard said after his appointment on Tuesday. "It's a challenge that isn't easy, but it's a motivating challenge."

From cleaner to coach

Renard's long and varied CV includes spells with clubs in France, England, Vietnam and Algeria, as well as six different national sides. He is the only man to have won the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) with two different teams, leading Zambia to a fairy tale triumph over Ivory Coast in 2012 before guiding the West Africans to the trophy three years later.

But his first steps into management came in more humble circumstances. Offered the chance to do some coaching at SC Draguignan in the south-east of France—the final club he played for before retiring aged 29—Renard also took a job as a cleaner. He would get up in the middle of the night and head to a block of flats to take out the bins, do general cleaning duties until lunchtime, then take training in the afternoon.

"I woke up at 2:30 in the morning, finished around noon and then left at 5pm for training at Draguignan," Renard told BBC Sport Africa in 2019. "We trained and I'd return [home] at around 9pm to eat and then go to bed at 11pm. That was my rhythm of life for eight years." Renard studied for his coaching badges alongside his cleaning job, and he credits that period with putting his life into perspective. "It was a physical job and I'm proud of having done it. It's the best schooling I could have had. You have to go through some failures and difficult times but it makes you stronger."

'Workaholic' and 'master tactician'

Renard got his big break when he was appointed assistant to compatriot Claude le Roy at Shanghai Cosco in 2002, and he later followed the former Cameroon manager to Cambridge United. It was at international level in Africa where he forged his reputation, and Zambian sports journalist Nkweto Tembwe remembers him as a "workaholic" and "master tactician" during his time with the Chipolopolo.

"Herve is a very, very focused person and knows what he wants," Tembwe told BBC Sport Africa. "This is a gentleman that is not scared to get in the deep end and do the work. He does a lot of reading to make sure he keeps up with the trends that are going on. He [studies] opponents like he's studying for an exam."

However, Renard was unable to repeat his Afcon success with Morocco—falling in the quarter-finals in 2017 and then the last 16 in 2019. After his first spell with Saudi Arabia, he served as coach of France's women's team and reached the quarter-finals of both the 2023 Women's World Cup and 2024 Olympics. Renard returned as Saudi Arabia boss in October 2024 and guided them to qualification for this year's World Cup, but was then dismissed in April.