He led the Elephants to their third African Cup of Nations title. The Côte d'Ivoire national team were on the brink of elimination when he took over the reins on January 24, following the resignation of Jean-Louis Gasset. Four days after their victory over Nigeria in the final on February 11, Emerse Faé looks back on his team's eventful tournament. And he's already looking ahead to the next AFCON 2025 in Morocco and the World Cup the following year in the US, Canada and Mexico.
There weren't too many questions to ask. The team knew me; I've been a member of the staff since June 2022. After the rout against Equatorial Guinea and the resignation of the coach, the players understood that they had a share of the responsibility. They reacted with pride. I didn't make any big speeches, because I'm not a big talker and there wasn't really any need to motivate the players. They didn't want to relive the humiliation they suffered against the Equatorial Guineans. In four days, we worked mainly on tactics.
It paid off, eliminating arch-rivals Senegal (1-1, 5-4 on penalties) after falling behind early on, then beating Mali (2-1 after extra time) after being reduced to ten men and trailing in the 73rd minute... It was just in the semi-final against the Democratic Republic of Congo (1-0) and in the final that they won with a degree of control. From a sports point of view, it's not so incomprehensible – Côte d'Ivoire is one of the best African teams and was playing at home.
I wasn't expecting him to leave. It was a difficult time for the staff and the players, because as well as being a very good coach, he's a good, honest man who we all like. I learned a lot being his assistant. When his resignation was accepted by Idriss Diallo, the Côte d'Ivoire Federation president, and he asked me if I was ready to take over, I didn't think twice. For me, it was a duty. When I joined the staff in 2022, the plan was for me to become coach at a later date. Jean-Louis Gasset's resignation sped things up, but I hadn't actually expected anything like that to happen.
I didn't really worry about it. I didn't want to put any extra pressure on myself. On the evening of January 24, we learned that we'd be facing Senegal in the Round of 16, so I had much better things to do than worry about rumors. Although I do believe that it would have been difficult to bring in an outsider in the middle of the competition, someone who was certainly competent and familiar with Côte d'Ivoire, but who didn't know the players.
No. As long as you're dealing with an honest man, there's no problem. We knew we could get him back for the last 16 or the quarters. We had to support him and listen to him because it's frustrating for a footballer not to play. But he never tried to rush his comeback. He told us when he felt up to playing for thirty minutes, an hour or more. He's a great professional.
We've agreed to continue working together, which makes sense to me. I want to continue my mission, nothing else. We'll take the time to settle a few contractual and sporting details. I'd like to continue working with the same technical staff, including Guy Demel, who joined us on January 24, and with whom I have a close relationship from the years we played together for the national team. President Diallo is fully in favor of this.
We'll have to talk to those who are considering it. I'm not going to argue with a player who, physically and mentally, no longer feels capable of playing for both club and country. The others, of course, will be selected on the basis of their club performances.
I wouldn't consider those goals, but rather two outcomes that we definitely have to achieve. We're not the prettiest, we're not the strongest, we have things to improve, we respect everyone, but our new status as African champions means we have to qualify. In March, we face Argentina in a friendly match in China. This will be an opportunity for us to meet again for a high-profile fixture. But in June, we'll be playing against Gabon and Kenya in qualification for the World Cup. And that's going to happen very quickly!
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.