AFRICA’S TOURE DE FORCE
Kolo driven to take Ivory Coast to a World Cup final and end Pele’s wait
IF A RETURN to football seems ages away, spare a thought for the frayed patience of Pele.
In 1977, the Brazilian star predicted an African team would win the World Cup. He believed it would be before 2000 but the wait will now be at least 45 years until Qatar 2022.
But Kolo Toure thinks he knows why it has not happened yet – they have not had the right manager. Now he is working hard to be the trailblazer who finally vindicates Pele.
The ex-Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool defender is learning his trade as assistant to Brendan Rodgers at Leicester. Despite having played under Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola, Toure is taking nothing for granted and is studying for his UEFA Pro Licence at St George’s Park. “If you want to bring the best to the players you have to learn the best philosophy of football playing,” he said. “You have to learn the best way to coach players.
“Some of my friends who have been playing maybe haven’t thought of that.
“But I want to do it because Africa needs people who can inspire them. There always has to be one person to start – and then the rest will follow.”
As a player, Toure was one of the early African imports to the Premier League when he signed for Arsenal in 2002. “I felt I had to do everything properly,” he said. “When you are the first player to come from your country people judge every other Ivory Coast player by how you do.
“If you do things right they will always think, ‘Kolo Toure comes from the Ivory Coast and he’s doing well’, and they will go and find new talent there. “After me, so many players from the Ivory Coast came here to express their talent. I was proud of that.” Up until now, though,African teams at the World Cup finals have been managed mostly by foreigners. Aside from the countries on the Mediterranean coast, who tend to appoint coaches internally, only five of the 27 other African teams to compete in the finals had a coach from the continent. “For all the knowledge of the coach coming in, you have to know the African player,” Toure said. “People are more relaxed and timing is not so very, very important.You have to go there and make sure every detail is dealt with.
“If you don’t nail things back there, you will miss something at the end. It may be you need to put an extra discipline on them.
“Of course, you want them to express themselves, but you have to make sure that you tell them things in the right moment and at the right time.”
If anybody has the charisma to carry it off, it is Toure, who has won over fans wherever he has played. And then there is that ‘Kolo, Kolo’ song.
“It touches my heart,” Toure said. “When you come to another country and the people embrace you, give you praise and even sing your name? It is unbelievable.
“Fifteen years ago, if somebody had said, ‘Kolo, people will be singing your name everywhere in the UK,’ I would say, ‘Are you joking, or what?’ This is a dream for me.”
And managing the Ivory Coast to a World Cup final is his next goal.