Didier Drogba, an iconic figure in African football, has attributed the continent’s challenges in the World Cup to frequent changes in coaching staff.
The legendary Ivory Coast player argues that in order for African teams to be competitive, they should adopt long-term projects with coaches and refrain from dismissing managers hastily in response to minor setbacks.
During his address at the 2023 Afreximbank Conference in Accra, Drogba stressed that this practice is widespread across African countries and advised against it, highlighting how it hampers team cohesion and development.
“It is not just about Ivory Coast but it is the same everywhere. We hire a national team coach. We win all the qualifying games for the World Cup of the Africa Cup of Nations.
“We go to the Africa Cup of Nations and we lose in the quarter-final, the next day or the next hour the manager is out. And we hire a new manager, this guy is coming in and he knows that for example in Ivory Coast national team you have Yaya Toure, Kolo Tour, Salomon Kalou, Didier Zokora, Didier Drogba.
“He [the new coach] is watching the premier league weekend, he is not going to think much, he is going to play the same team otherwise for him it’s easy to put the same team and we go like that same circle. Two years later he is out, you don’t build anything by hiring new managers. Give them time.”
The former Chelsea man referenced France manager Didier Deschamps situation, stating that he would have lost his job in 2016 if he were head coach of an African side.
“Look at Didier Deschamp, he has been with the French national team for almost a decade.
“He lost the Euros in 2016 in France can you imagine if this happened in Ivory and Ghana?” Didier Drogba said at this year’s Afreximbank Conference in Accra.
Since Africa’s debut at the World Cup in 1934, the continent has had only four representatives in the quarter-final with only one managing to reach the semis.
The list includes Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco. Morocco became the first African country to reach the semi-finals in 2022 when they beat Spain.