Beautiful words by Jean-Louis Gasset

This is an unprecedented fact, the selection changed the coach during the competition. This is what happened in Ivory Coast during CAN, as Jean-Louis Gasset resigned in the face of popular pressure after a disappointing group stage, ending with a slap against Equatorial Guinea (0-4). The resignation was reluctantly accepted by the president of the Ivorian Football Federation, Idriss Diallo. But thanks to incredibly favorable results in other groups, the Elephants punched their ticket to the Round of 16. Now led by Emerse Faé, they shockingly find themselves in the finals of a competition held in their home country.

Newspaper team Jean-Louis was able to contact Gasset and talk about this particularly surprising journey. We know coaches who would have had trouble digesting such a scenario, but Gassett is more of an enthusiastic supporter of Cote d’Ivoire than ever. He also recalled that the list he put together wasn’t that bad, having been criticized for retaining injured players early in the tournament, such as Haller or Adingra. “The list was well made, even though I couldn’t organize it well. We arrived at the objective in a different way but it proves that the chosen commando is correct, even if I would have chosen not to arrive at this result. Some people didn’t understand why I kept Heller and (Simon) Edingra. There you go… and both scores, I was very happy. I dream of seeing Heller score a goal in the final. He is very deserving of it.”

assured Gasset, who watched all the matches. “Of course, I don’t miss a beat!” And as soon as the referee blows the final whistle, the president has a text message. I’m sending it to the staff, the players, the captain! I am proud of elephants, happy. My departure brought peace. We tell ourselves, he was a criminal and he protects others. Maybe you had to see death up close to bounce back. »