Ahmed Kantari to be dismissed on Tuesday, Vahid Halilhodzic expected to take over | OneFootball

Ahmed Kantari will be dismissed by Nantes on Tuesday after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Angers, with Vahid Halilhodzic expected to take over, according to L'Équipe.

Kantari arrived in mid December to replace Luis Castro, becoming the club’s second coaching change of the season. Nantes are 17th on 17 points, the worst return in their Ligue 1 history at this stage.

It was his first top-flight job and it began with a 4-1 loss at Angers only hours after taking charge. He revived Fabien Centonze and oversaw a deserved 2-0 win at Marseille. Results then tailed off, with five straight league defeats in January and February and a Coupe de France exit to Nice after a 1-1 draw and a 5-3 shootout.

In Ligue 1 he collected six points from 10 matches, a 0.60 points-per-game return, worse than Castro’s 0.73 and close to Raymond Domenech’s 0.57. Injuries hampered plans, and issues around game ideas and communication, notably with younger players, also counted against him.

With the PSG match postponed, Nantes have a 15-day window to install a new coach, expected to be Halilhodzic. The 73-year-old played for the club from 1981 to 1986 and managed them in 2018-2019. He has not coached since 2022, when his spell in charge of Morocco ended.

Source: L'Équipe