Duarte replaces Le Roy as Togo head coach

Togo Football Federation (TFF) has appointed Portuguese trainer Paulo Duarte (52) as the new head coach to replace Claude Le Roy who handed in a formal resignation to vacate his post following a run of poor results under his watch. It is reported that Le Roy took the decision after he failed to lead the Sparrow Hawks to next year's Africa Cup of Nations finals scheduled to take part in Cameroon.

Duarte’s main task will be to lead the team through the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, where they are in a group with Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville and Namibia. The Portuguese tactician who has previously coached Burkina Faso and Gabon will reportedly start work in August 2021.

The 73-year-old Le Roy took over Togo in 2016 and led them to the 2017 finals in Gabon, but they have since failed to qualify for the continental showpiece.

Togo, who were in the same group with the Harambee Stars in the recently concluded African Cup of Nations qualifiers, finished bottom of Group G on two points having failed to manage a win in the entire AFCON qualifiers.

Le Roy has taken five different sides to AFCON since he took over Cameroon in 1986. In 1988, the Frenchman led the same Cameroonian side to win the 1988 AFCON finals.