--- title: "Ivory Coast lets go of the coach who won them the Africa Cup of Nations" description: "Emerse Fae's contract with Ivory Coast expired on July 31 and the federation is not renewing it. He is the coach who took over midway through the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and won it, then qualified the team for the World Cup and took it into the knockout rounds for the first time in four attempts." category: "Sports" category_url: https://herald.la/category/sports author: "Naomi Fields" published: 2026-08-01T09:52:00.000Z updated: 2026-08-01T09:52:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/ivory-coast-lets-go-of-the-coach-who-won-them-the-africa-cup-of-nations tags: ["ivory-coast", "world-cup-2026", "emerse-fae", "africa-cup-of-nations", "soccer"] --- # Ivory Coast lets go of the coach who won them the Africa Cup of Nations Emerse Fae's contract with Ivory Coast expired on July 31 and the federation is not renewing it. He is the coach who took over midway through the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and won it, then qualified the team for the World Cup and took it into the knockout rounds for the first time in four attempts. Emerse Fae is no longer the coach of Ivory Coast. His contract expired on July 31 and the Ivorian Football Federation is not renewing it, [ESPN reported](https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/49497803/ivory-coast-part-ways-afcon-winning-coach-emerse-fae). He was not sacked; the deal simply ran out and was allowed to. The federation's statement was warm and gave no reason. Its executive committee, it said, "expresses its profound gratitude to Mr. Emerse Fae for his commitment, professionalism, and the services he rendered as head of the senior national team," and commended a contribution "which will remain an important part of the recent history of Ivorian football." No successor has been named; the federation said it would announce one in due course. ## What he did The record is unusual enough to state plainly. Fae, 42, was an assistant when Jean-Louis Gasset was dismissed midway through the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, which Ivory Coast was hosting. He took the team over mid-tournament, with the campaign already in trouble, and won it, beating Nigeria 2-1 in the final for the country's third continental title. He then qualified Ivory Coast for the 2026 World Cup and, at the tournament, took six points from the group stage by beating Ecuador and Curaçao while losing to Germany. That was enough to reach the knockout rounds for the first time in the country's four World Cup appearances. The run ended on June 30 against Norway. Antonio Nusa put Norway ahead in the 39th minute, Amad Diallo equalized in the 74th, and Erling Haaland scored in the 86th to win it 2-1, [Al Jazeera's match coverage recorded](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/liveblog/2026/6/30/ivory-coast-vs-norway-live-fifa-world-cup-2026). ## The Germany comments After the group-stage defeat to Germany, Fae said something that traveled further than the result. "We look to nations like this as an example in order to keep developing, and I was a little disappointed by the lack of fair play from this German team," he said, [per Yahoo Sports](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/clashed-germany-another-world-cup-093400467.html). The federation has not linked those remarks to its decision, and there is no basis for assuming a connection. It is worth recording that the comment was made and that it was pointed, without inventing a causal chain the federation did not draw. ## What it means A coach who wins a continental championship and reaches a World Cup knockout round is not, on any ordinary reading, a failure. Letting a contract lapse rather than dismissing him is a specific and deliberate choice: it ends the relationship without any statement about performance, and it leaves the federation free to look elsewhere without having to justify a firing. What it also does is leave Ivory Coast, one of African football's biggest programs, without a head coach and without a stated timeline for hiring one. ## Sources - [Ivory Coast part ways with AFCON-winning coach Emerse Fae](https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/49497803/ivory-coast-part-ways-afcon-winning-coach-emerse-fae) - [He clashed with Germany: another World Cup boss loses his job](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/clashed-germany-another-world-cup-093400467.html) - [Norway beat Ivory Coast 2-1: FIFA World Cup, as it happened](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/liveblog/2026/6/30/ivory-coast-vs-norway-live-fifa-world-cup-2026)