Modest Herve Renard celebrates Zambia's Africa Cup of Nations success

In victory, Renard was modest, insisting "it was nothing to do with me." He had first discussed the possibilities of the draw when he gathered his squad together on December 28. "I said to the players, 'You know there is something - we play first against Senegal and the plane was going to Senegal, and the final is in Libreville, where the plane was leaving from.' I can't explain it: it was written."

Modesty is not a trait anybody would previous have associated with Renard. "Some people say I am long-haired and big-headed," he said, "but I'm not that bad." He is intense, self-ironic, charismatic and very, very French.

His return to Zambia last October, after Dario Bonetti had coached them through the qualifiers, was controversial, but the bond he had with his players was obvious. Renard acts as a stern but respected father, popular with his charges but not to be take advantage of. If there was any doubt about that, it vanished when he expelled the midfielder Clifford Mulenga from the squad early in the tournament for refusing to apologise after
breaching a curfew.

A sign of his management style came midway through the first half of the final, when he was so incensed at the high line played by his full-back Davies Nkausu that he thumped him in the chest. "We saw against Mali that if you leave 50m behind you, Gervinho will kill you," he explained.

"I showed them that sequence, so I was furious he did not respect what I said. Perhaps it looks strange from the outside, but they know how I am. There's no problem. I think they need someone like this. If they had a coach who didn't react like this . . . they need to be pushed. Sometimes they are not very focused, but they can do magical things."

Certainly Nkausu didn't seem to take it amiss, patting his coach on the shoulder as though to calm him down.

This is a Zambia squad first put together after the failure to qualify for the World Cup in 2006 from an assortment of youth players. Since then there has been a consistency of selection that has resulted in an intense team spirit, something, of course, only heightened by the desire to honour those who died in the 1993 crash.

"The team spirit is fantastic," said Renard. "I've never known moments anywhere else like I've known with Zambia."

The most obvious sign of that came after the final as Renard approached the defender Joseph Musonda, who had been led off in tears after suffering a shin injury in the opening few minutes. He picked him up, and carried  him onto the pitch to join his celebrating team-mates, a touching moment that emphasised just how tight-knit this Zambian group is.

"We have a team unit," said the captain Christopher Katingo. "We may not have big names but we have a team unit. You just have to look at the way the Senegalese play. Nigeria were not here - why? Cameroon were not here - why? The teamwork is the important thing. You can have 200million professional players at Chelsea, Barcelona, Inter . . . but if they can't play together as a team, they can't do anything, they can't win anything."

It's a lesson Zambia hammered home in Libreville on Sunday.