Henri Michel finally beats Nations Cup jinx

Henri Michel, the Cote d’Ivoire’s well travelled manager has overcome his Nations Cup demons to take his young side to the Nations Cup Final against Egypt later today.

Michel has twice lost his job after Nations Cup failures. He managed Morocco in 1998 and 2000 and was also in charge of Tunisia in 2002. He was fired after Tunisia failed to score a goal in the 2002 tournament in Mali and were eliminated in the group stages. As a result, he didn’t manage them when they went to the World Cup finals in Japan/Korea. He also left his job with Morocco in 2000 after they failed to go past the group stages.

His appearance with Cote d’Ivoire at the World Cup in June will mark his fourth time at the finals . He was coach of France when they reached the semi-finals in 1986 in Mexico, followed by runs with Cameroon in 1994 and Morocco four years later.