By: Mohamed Sabe It is very hard to talk about African football without mentioning the name of Henri Michel who guided four teams from the Dark Continent to the World Cup finals. This man, who on more than one occasion turned down offers to coach the Egyptian national team, has arrived in Cairo to take over as head coach of local powerhouse Zamalek in an effort to change his fortunes when it comes to the club level. The 59-year-old Frenchman began his professional playing career in 1966 with club Nantes for whom he played for during the course of a 16-year playing career. Michel made a name for himself with Les Canaris, winning three Ligue titles with Nantes and holding the record for most caps with the team, 532. After retiring from football, Michel took charge of the French Olympic team and steered them to victory at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, making him the most successful candidate to succeed the legendary Michel Hidalgo at the of Les Bleus. The seasoned tactician made good use of the arsenal of players like Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez and went on to win third place at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico. He quit the French national team in 1988 but returned to takeover the team until their humiliating exit from the 1990 World Cup qualifiers after a draw with Cyprus. AFRICAN LOVE-HATE STORY Michel then shifted his interest to Africa, putting the basis for an ongoing love-hate story between him and this mysterious continent. He took his trade to Cameroon and helped them qualify for a second-successive World Cup appearance. But the team's dismal showing in the USA and their elimination from the first round got him sacked. The current took him up to Morocco and helped the team secure a place at the 1998 finals in France where the Atlas Lions excelled but were ousted from the first round after a conspiracy from Brazil and Norway.
Zamalek football team Michel's honeymoon with Morocco was over when the team suffered a humiliating first round exit in the 2000 African Cup of Nations that once again saw him getting fired. The French boss packed his bags and moved to the Gulf to takeover the UAE national team followed by a small spell in Greece, but his longing for Africa lead him right back to Tunisia. Michel's World Cup qualification streak continued as he guided the Carthage Eagles to the finals in 2002, but the ghost of the African Cup of Nations returned to haunt him. Once again Michel found himself on the street after Tunisia bid the 2002 African finals goodbye from the first round. Michel took a break from coaching national teams and returned to Morocco as coach of Raja Casablanca with whom he won the local and African Champions League. In 2004, Michel took off on his most successful African endeavor yet. The veteran coach took charge of a young and inexperienced Ivory Coast team that he developed into a feared opponent capable of overthrowing Africa's top dogs. And while maintaing his World Cup qualification streak with African teams and steering Ivory Coast to the Germany 2006 finals, Michel finally got rid of his Nations Cup ghosts by guiding the team to the final game where they lost to hosts Egypt in a penalty shootout. UNLUCKY WITH CLUBS With the exception of Raja, Michel's spells at the club level were not that successful. He coach French giants Paris Saint Germain in 1990-1991 and Al-Nassr of Saudi Arabia for less than a year in 1995 and Aris Salonika of Greece in 2001 without any major success. His latest disappointment was with Al-Arabi of Qatar where he was sacked just six games into the league campaign. But Michel's club record does not seem to bother Zamalek officials who have had the worst luck with foreign coaches since Nelo Vingada
