Antananarivo, Jan 31 (Reporter) Former France midfielder Corentin Martins has been appointed as the new Madagascar coach. The 55-year-old takes over from Romuald Rakotondrabe and will lead the team for the remainder of their FIFA World Cup 26 qualifying campaign, the FIFA reported. "The objectives are short-term because I’ve signed for one year with the national team," said Martins in a press conference. "There’s already a mission underway, started by Coach Roro, who gave the Malagasy people a lot of hope with the strong results at the start [of qualifying]. So my job will be to build on the work of my predecessors and, of course, to try to reach what seems like an unimaginable goal—taking Madagascar to the World Cup. In any case, we’re going to give it our all and work hard to make life difficult for our opponents," he said. Madagascar are currently third in Group I of the CAF preliminaries, two points behind both Ghana and leaders Comoros. Madagascar will resume their bid to reach the global finals in March, when they face Central African Republic and Ghana in a crunch double-header. Martins, who won 14 caps for France between 1993 and 1996, spent most of his playing career with Auxerre and Strasbourg. His coaching experience includes a seven-year spell in charge of Mauritania, who he led to CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualification in 2019 and 2021, and one year with Libya from 2022 to 2023...////...