Ivory Cost:Elephants without Drogba,It’s a Saga

Sabri Lamouchi, the Coach of Ivory Coast National Football team, has decided to not put Didier Drogba’ name on the list of strikers to perform during the qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup scheduled to take place in  Gambia and in Tanzania in the upcoming June (8,16,June). A choice that leaves no one indifferent.

Since the elimination of the Elephants in the quarter-finals of the CAN 2013 against Nigeria (1-2), Sabri Lamouchi did not call Didier Drogba for any occasion. And former Chelsea striker (35 years, 96 caps and 60 goals winner) will not accompany   the squad in June during these significant competitions to take place both in Gambia and in Tanzania. Lamouchi, according to Jeune Afrique, has cracked a terse statement posted on the Website of the Federation to explain his choice, without ever mentioning the names of the three stars.Kolo Touré (Manchester City) and Emmanuel Eboué, teammate Drogba Galatasaray’ star, Istanbul, are not selected yet.

“Lamouchi wants to move on, because Drogba ‘generation has gained nothing’. “But I do not think this necessarily means the end of international Didier’ career: Lamouchi continues. “I think that the two men(Drogba and Lamouchi)  might have had a discussion about it. Maybe he prefers to let blow after a season that began in Shanghai Shenhua. He has joined Turkey in January .He has nothing to fear about , “suggests Robert Nouzaret, Ex-coach of Ivory Coast’ Elephants.

“But it is not the list for the August Friendly match against Morocco or that in September which is concerned here. He will begin to get the idea that he has a place there”Nouzaret continued.

For  Jean-Jacques Tizié(the former goalkeeper of Elephants), it is much less sympathetic towards Lamouchi. The former Ivorian goalkeeper (83 caps between 1995 and 2007), currently member of the technical staff of Espérance de Tunis. “Drogba is fit, he proved himself to be competent for several months ago. It’s wrong to disqualify a player of his size. Even if he is 35 years old, he remains competitive at international level”. Tizié believes.

For Tizié Lamouchi’s statement is not very clear. Currently rumors about difficulty relations between Drogba and his coach are spreading, but special ones stretch that misunderstandings arise between the player and the Ivorian Football Federation. People wonder if the Star will choose Galatasaray Squad or be faithful to home-grown team. But based on these controversies, it is most likely the star will bend for Galatasaray’proposals.

JD Nsengiyumva Inzaghi

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