"Emerse has been interim coach until now, and he has now been confirmed as the titular coach," announced Mr Diallo during the presentation of the CAN trophy to a sponsor in Abidjan.

The length of his contract was not specified.

Fae took over the reins of the Ivorian national team in the middle of the Africa Cup of Nations, in the wake of a disastrous first round on home soil.

The Ivorians, then coached by Frenchman Jean-Louis Gasset, got off to a winning start against Guinea-Bissau (2-0) before losing to Nigeria (1-0) and being humiliated by Equatorial Guinea (4-0).

Thanks to the results in the other groups, however, the Elephants qualified for the Round of 16 by a narrow margin.

The Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) then decided to sack Mr Gasset and hand over to one of his assistants, Fae.

Teaming up with another former Ivorian international, Guy Demel, the former Nantes and Nice midfielder revived the Ivorian side, who finally won the CAF Africa Cup of Nations on February 11th against Nigeria (2-1), after successively eliminating Senegal (1-1, 5-4 on penalties), Mali (2-1 on aggregate) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1-0).