Paddy Agnew's Column: Amid all the wild scenes of celebration that greeted Tunisia's African Cup of Nations success with a 2-1 victory over Morocco in an all north African final in Rades last Saturday, at least one man played it cool.

Asked about his immediate future, Tunisia's French coach Roger Lemerre diplomatically kicked to touch.

You could hardly blame the 62-year-old Frenchman. After all, in the past 20 months he has been on a fast-track ride from national scapegoat to national hero. Twenty months ago, as coach to reigning champions France at the 2002 World Cup finals, Lemerre earned himself the sack after his side were knocked out in the first round.

Last weekend Lemerre was the toast of Tunisia as thousands took to the streets of the country's major cities to celebrate a first African Cup of Nations success and one, of course, that had been gained on home ground.

As the horns honked and the fireworks flared, people wanted to know if Lemerre would stay on with Tunisia to guide them through their forthcoming 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign. Not surprisingly, the Frenchman played safe, saying only: "I prefer to hear the (Tunisian Football) president say he's happy with the work that's been done. It is satisfying to know that my work is recognised. When I came here, I asked for only one thing - the right to work.

"When I came here, it wasn't necessarily to win the Cup of Nations. It was to teach and to help Tunisia. Winning the tournament was the main priority of the people who hired me but it wasn't mine. Winning is only a peripheral thing. It is more important that this is the joy of a whole nation"

Reading between the lines, one suspects Lemerre is wary of the heavy burden of responsibility he would carry into the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers. After all, Tunisia have been drawn with Saturday's beaten finallists Morocco, who will hardly lack for motivation, in a group from which only one team qualifies. (Malawi, Kenya and Botswana are the other teams in the group).

Lemerre could be forgiven if he reasons that guiding a country to its first African Cup of Nations success, on home soil to boot, is about as good as it gets. Unless Tunisia qualify for the 2006 World and then go on to do well at the finals in Germany, Tunisian football fortunes can only take a downward turn in the immediate future.

Lemerre, too, will doubtless have noticed the sheer quality of the Moroccan side which, until the final last Saturday, had looked like the best in the tournament. Moroccan defender Abdeslam Ouaddou, now with Rennes in France but formerly with Fulham in the Premiership, underlined the point last weekend: "Our young team failed to ride out the pressure (in the final) . . . and so Tunisia won. But we will get our pound of flesh when we play against them in the World Cup qualifiers"

Lemerre's achievements with Tunisia once more underline the cosmopolitan nature of contemporary football success stories. It was Tunisia's triumph but one greatly aided by the guiding hand of a French coach and by the football skills of two Tunisian-naturalised Brazilians, full back Clayton and striker Dos Santos.

To be fair to Tunisia, some of the country's native-bred talent showed itself to be pretty useful. In particular, it comes as no surprise to discover a host of Premiership, Liga and Serie A clubs have earmarked Tunisian defender Hatem Trabelsi for importation from Holland where he stars for Ajax Amsterdam.

Tunisia's success, too, once more underlined the old cliché about the psychological boost gleaned from playing a major tournament like this on home soil. Like South Korea in the 2002 World Cup finals, Tunisia played above themselves, especially in the final where their wildly enthusiastic and partisan supporters played a major role in psyching Morocco out of the match.

Whatever Roger Lemerre opts to do with his future, however, he can look back on this competition with immense satisfaction. A key moment may have come in the quarter-final two weeks ago when Tunisia beat Senegal 1-0. You will recall it was Senegal who plunged France into wholesale chaos by defeating them 1-0 in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup. As footballers say, whatever goes round, comes round.