Irish Examiner view: Merci beaucoup, Hervé Renard

There have been two major speeches during the Qatar World Cup. One made us squirm, but the Saudi Arabia coach's talk injected much-needed joie de vivre into the whole event

The half-time talk by Saudi Arabia's coach, Hervé Renard, during their triumph over Argentina instantly became one of the highlights of this World Cup.  Picture: Ricardo Mazalan/AP

The Saudi Arabians may not win the 2022 World Cup — in fact, let us stick our neck out and say definitively that they will not — but they could be on to something new, and potentially lucrative, in terms of spectator sport.

The half-time talk of their French coach, Hervé Renard, in their triumphant opening match against Argentina was hugely more entertaining than many games in the tournament to date. 

Renard, all flamboyant gesticulation and gallic sarcasm (“Are you here just to have your picture with Lionel Messi?... Take your phone!”) is now a star of Youtube, as is his brilliant translator, who managed to squeeze every soupcon of motivation and passion out of his boss’s words. 

Forget Al Pacino’s “inch-by-inch” oration in Any Given Sunday, there’s a new kid in town.

There have been two major speeches at Qatar. The first was the self-indulgent peroration of Gianni Infantino on the eve of the competition which left us squirming in our seats. The other was that of Renard. That’s the one that got us to our feet and instilled some badly needed joie de vivre.