359 days before the start of the Olympics, Sylvain Ripoll is no longer the coach of the France Espoirs team and the Olympic selection, the French Football Federation (FFF) announced on Monday July 31 in a press release. “By mutual agreement (…), it indeed appeared necessary to open a new cycle for the 2023-2024 season in order to create the conditions for a successful course at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games”, specifies the FFF.
Arrived on the Bleuets bench in May 2017 after the dismissal of Pierre Mankowski, the former technician from Lorient (2014-2016) had managed to qualify the French team for three consecutive European Championships (semi-final in 2019 , quarter-finals in 2021 and 2023), after a long period of scarcity.
The failure of Euro 2023
But Sylvain Ripoll had been weakened since the Under-21 Euro, organized in Romania and Georgia (from June 21 to July 8, 2023). Despite a golden generation led by Khéphren Thuram, Amine Gouiri or even Rayan Cherki, France lost to Ukraine (1-3) in the quarter-finals.
Sylvain Ripoll’s balance sheet with the Espoirs (41 wins, 12 draws and 9 defeats) finally convinced French football officials and Philippe Diallo, the president of the FFF, to find him a successor. Less than a year from the Olympic Games at home – “major objective of the national selection”, indicates the press release of the federation -, the FFF wants to avoid a new hiccup that would make it bad, two years after the chaotic course of the Bleuets at the Tokyo Olympics (elimination in the 1st round). It remains to be seen who will take over.
