NO COACH, NO PROBLEM FOR THE IVORIANS

In a tournament that has been scripted by the Gods and guardians of football, nobody would’ve anticipated the pulsating drama that the world is witnessing with the 2024 edition of the AFCON. It’s becoming safe to say that players who refused to participate in the competition and fans who aren’t watching the AFCON because of “poor quality” are being served some cold unpalatable humble pie.

Monday’s Round of 16 clashes saw Mauritania and Senegal get eliminated from the competition following defeats from Cape Verde and Ivory Coast respectively, a fate that the Lions of Teranga and Head Coach Aliou Cisse would’ve not expected to face if their squad quality was anything to go by.

But squad quality means nothing if a curse is following you, an AFCON champions curse that is. Since 2010, no AFCON defending champion has been able to reach the quarter finals of the competition and Senegal was not about to be an exception at the expense of the host nation.

HOW THE IVORIANS DID IT WITHOUT A COACH

Following the 4-0 loss to minnows Equatorial Guinea in their last group stage encounter, the Ivorians wasted no time sacking their former head coach, Jean-Louis Gasset, who had overseen the team for almost 2 years. The Frenchman was sent packing even before the match between Zambia and Morocco, a match that would decide the fate of the host nation's continous participation in the tournament.

In a turn of events most likely to ever happen only in African football, Morocco’s 1-0 win over Zambia meant that the host nation would live to fight another day in the AFCON, but the Ivorians would need to test themselves against a start-studded Senegalese team that won all 3 of their group games. A tough ask for the Elephants of Ivory Coast, but a task they would relish as they’d manage to knockout one of the tournament favourites after taking the game to penalties.

With the sacking of Gasset, the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) approached the French Football Federation (FFF) to propose a loan offer for the French Women’s Head Coach and two-time AFCON winning coach, Herve Renard, a proposal that was ultimately rejected by the FFF.

The Ivorians had no choice but to seek for strength from within and gave the Caretaker Coach role to Assistant Coach and former Ivorian international, Emerse Fae, a man whose Coaching experience spans from the 5^thtier of French football with Clermont Foot B to the U23 Ivory Coast national team. A gamble that paid off on the most important day for Ivorian football.

Fae’s contribution paid off immensely when he made the decision to bench La Liga and Serie A champion, Frank Kessie, a player that has featured all tournament for the Elephants, to replace him with 32-year-old Jean-Michael Seri, who received the Total Man of The Match Award on his first outing in the 2024 edition of AFCON. 

When Fae was questioned about the team’s victory and chances in this tournament, the coach remained grounded in his response voicing that the team shouldn’t be carried away.

“Since last Monday and the defeat against Equatorial Guinea, I have been taking the matches one-by-one, and today, yes, we beat Senegal,” Fae said.

“Finally, we eliminated Senegal, we found a state of mind, that’s a good thing, but we’re definitely not going to get excited. We have come so far that we are not going to get excited, we are going to continue to work, continue to work on our solidity, keep this state of mind which will give us the strength to perhaps go for the title.

“But for the moment, we are focusing on the quarterfinal. We will calmly look at who our opponent will be, and we will take the matches one after the other.”

The Ivorians will await their next task as Mali take on Burkina Faso in the earlier game on Tuesday before South Africa take on Morocco in the last game of Round of 16.  The Ivorians will face either Mali or Burkina Faso in their quarter-final clash.