French coach Claude Le Roy says he has already been contacted with job offers just hours after he decided to resign from his post with Togo’s national team.
Le Roy took the decision after he failed to lead the Sparrowhawks to next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon.
The 73-year-old took over Togo in 2016, with the team struggling in Nations Cup qualifying and he managed to turn things around and led them to the 2017 finals in Gabon, but they have since failed to qualify for the continental show-piece.
“I still have the energy to coach. Since yesterday, I received phone calls so I will think about it,” he told BBC Sport Africa.
“For now, I will take some time off, release my book next month. But I already have some offers on the table and really serious ones.”
Coaching Togo at the 2017 finals meant that Le Roy has been to nine Nations Cups with six different countries.
With Togo finishing bottom of their group in the latest Nations Cup qualifiers, with just two points behind Egypt, Comoros and Kenya, Le Roy decided his journey with the team was at an end.
His replacement’s main task will be to lead the team through 2022 World Cup qualifying, where they are in a group with Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville and Namibia.
“It is always heart-breaking to leave a group, a staff that you value but I had to review and be loyal and I felt that after the failure in the Afcon qualifiers I needed to be honest and leave my seat for someone else for the World Cup qualifiers,” he explained.
As a former Senegal coach he jokingly added: “Even though I wished to give a few headaches to my Senegalese friends that I love so much.”
Leaving a legacy
He hopes that he has left behind system that mean football in Togo can continue to develop.
“Togolese football never was really organised now a lot of things are currently developed and going in the right way,” he added.
“I founded ‘Graines du Togo’ (Seeds of Togo) a project to detect young talents and we had 15,000 kids last year.
“We also started to have a meaningful league with pitches that actually look like football pitches.
“I still think my successors will deserve to be given time and understanding.
“A whole generation left with (Serge) Gakpe, (Alaixys) Romao, (Kossi) Agassa and (Emmanuel) Adebayor and don’t forget this generation didn’t win anything. Togo never reached the semi-finals or final of an Afcon.
“I felt we were close to something but we still lost some games because we didn’t have enough experience. “
“My job is about results and when you don’t have results, you should be able to say “Thank you very much” especially since they put in place the best conditions possible.”
Le Roy’s Nations Cup history:
| Year | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Cameroon | Runners-up |
| 1988 | Cameroon | Champions |
| 1990 | Senegal | Fourth place |
| 1992 | Senegal | Quarter-finals |
| 2006 | DR Congo | Quarter-finals |
| 2008 | Ghana | Third place |
| 2013 | DR Congo | First round |
| 2015 | Congo | Quarter-finals |
| 2017 | Togo | First round |
source: BBC
