AFCON: Emerse Fae Joins Herve Renard and Yeo Martial in List of Coaches Who Led Ivory Coast to Glory

• Emerse Fae made history after leading the Elephants to the AFCON 2023 title
• He joined an exclusive list of coaches who led Ivory Coast to the AFCON championship
• Yeo Martial and Herve Renard helped the Ivorians claim the trophy in 1992 and 2015

Emerse Fae is the man of the moment in Ivory Coast.

Against all odds, the interim coach led his country to their third AFCON championship.

Sports Brief looks at the list of coaches who won the Africa Cup of Nations title with Ivory Coast following Fae's success story.

Ivory Coast coaches who won AFCON title

Yeo Martial (1992)

Martial will forever be remembered by Ivory Coast fans as the first coach to lead the Elephants to the Africa Cup of Nations title.

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Football

They say defence wins championships, and that certainly was the case for Martial's side. They didn't concede a single goal the entire tournament, recording five clean sheets en route to the title.

They shut out Congo and Algeria in the group stage and blanked Zambia, Cameroon, and Ghana in the knockout rounds.

Ivory Coast managed to win the title despite not scoring a goal in the semis and the final, winning those encounters via penalty shootout.

Herve Renard (2015)

The pressure was on Renard to deliver the championship to Ivory Coast in 2015.

He was appointed as manager of their national team in 2014 because of his experience on the African football scene, having led Zambia to the championship in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Fans expected Renard to do the same with the Elephants and end their long 23-year title drought.

That he did in 2015, with Ivory Coast going undefeated the entire tournament to claim their second AFCON championship.

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Football

The Elephants finished top of Group D after beating Cameroon in their final match. Their offense picked up in the knockout rounds, scoring three goals each in their wins over Algeria and DR Congo.

The final proved to be a nervy affair, with the match going into penalties after both sides failed to score in regulation and extra time.

Ivory Coast emerged victorious in the end, winning 9-8 in the shootout over Ghana to hand Renard his second AFCON title, per France24.

Emerse Fae (2023)

The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations was a rollercoaster ride for Ivory Coast. An early exit looked to be on the cards for the hosts after they lost their last two group games against Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.

Results from other groups saw the Elephants qualify for the Round of 16 as one of the four best third-placed teams.

That wasn't enough to save the job of veteran coach Jean-Louis Gasset, who was sacked after Ivory Coast's poor start to the tournament.

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Football

In a bizarre move, the Ivorian federation tried to sign their former coach, Renard, for the remainder of the tournament in a loan deal with the French Football Federation.

Their offer was rejected, though. They decided to appoint Emerse Fae as their interim coach instead, days before their crunch clash with the defending champions, Senegal, per Reuters.

Fae's appointment worked wonders for the Elephants, who went on a miraculous run in this year's AFCON.

They recorded three come-from-behind wins in the knockout rounds, including their 2-1 victory over Nigeria in the final to win their third AFCON championship.

Fans and the media praised Fae for the team's turnaround, calling him the "Special One" for his role in bringing another title to Ivory Coast.

Records broken at AFCON 2023

Sports Brief recently reported on the records that were broken at AFCON 2023.

The tournament produced 119 goals, the highest in AFCON history.

William Troost-Ekong also became the highest-scoring defender in the history of the Africa Cup of Nations, netting five goals.