A few years ago, one of the greats of African football invited me to his house for dinner. While his wife grilled fish and plantains, we watched Sunderland beat Arsenal in the FA Cup. Gradually, several former players showed up. As they talked, it slowly dawned on me that they were plotting a coup against the president of their country’s football federation.
One of the biggest problems, I was told, was that the Ministry of Sports paid the national coach’s salary, but had little knowledge of football. The federation, like many others, had realized that if they nominated a European, the salary would be higher; the higher the salary, the more had to be skimmed off. Hence the fleets of French journeymen in African football.
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That is not to say that European coaches were or are necessarily bad for African football. Some – such as Hervé Renard, Claude Le Roy and Winfried Schäfer – have clearly been useful. Belgian Tom Saintfiet resigned as Gambia coach following their exit from the Africa Cup of Nations group stages this week, but has done a remarkable job in guiding the Scorpions to the finals twice, having never qualified before.
This does not mean that every disappointing appointment of a European by an African nation is necessarily corrupt: sometimes federations are simply unimaginative. But after a remarkable first two weeks at Afcon, which not only produced some of the best football in the competition this century, but also extreme drama, it feels like the winds of change are blowing through the continent.
Of the 24 teams, only three had a coach of exclusively French nationality. To put that into context, 27% of the coaches at the previous ten tournaments were French. There were also three in Cameroon in 2021. The last time this percentage was lower was in 1996 in South Africa.
It may not be entirely mischievous to suggest that the more progressive football of the group stages is a result, as the influence of the thinking of Aimé Jacquet and Didier Deschamps diminishes and coaches prioritize winning and what is best for their country, in instead of avoiding the type of football. of a defeat that can tarnish a resume.
All three teams with French coaches reached the knockouts, but none have covered themselves in glory. 64-year-old Hubert Velud, whose Burkina Faso came second in their group behind Angola, has done the best. This is his 22nd management job and his third African nation. As coach of Togo, he was shot in the arm in a terrorist attack shortly before the 2010 tournament in Angola. Sébastien Desabre, whose Democratic Republic of Congo drew all three group matches, is 47 years old but is on his 15th job and his second with an African country.
But the one who fared the worst was 70-year-old Jean-Louis Gasset, a former assistant coach at Paris Saint-Germain and France. He was sacked by the home side after Ivory Coast’s opening win over Guinea-Bissau was followed by a pair of defeats. Chasing a goal when behind against Nigeria, Gasset kept throwing forward, which only led to congestion against a deep-lying 5-4-1. In similar circumstances, Gasset came up with a similar solution against Equatorial Guinea and on that occasion his side suffered a complete tactical and temperamental breakdown as they collapsed to a humiliating 4-0 defeat.
After an attempt to loan Renard from France Women was rejected, former Reading midfielder Emerse Faé, who has no managerial experience, has taken over as interim manager for Monday’s last-16 match against defending champions Senegal.
It is Senegal, by far the best team in the group stage, that seems to provide the model. Since taking charge in 2015, Aliou Cissé has not only achieved continental success but has also qualified for the World Cup twice. He is the leader of a wave of coaches who grew up in European academies and then took that experience to their national teams.
Related: Ivory Coast dismiss Gasset before he reaches the last 16, while Ghana cut Hughton
Djamel Belmadi stepped down as Algeria coach following their group stage exit, but while there was lackluster play, his performance in winning the Cup of Nations in 2019 cannot be overlooked. Walid Regragui’s Morocco, who became the first African team to reach the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar, are probably the biggest threat to Senegal.
Or take Amir Abdou, coach of Mauritania. He was born in Marseille and has joint French-Comoros citizenship. The 51-year-old coached Comoros for eight years and led them to a first ever Cup of Nations qualification in 2021 and their legendary victory over Ghana. Now he’s overseeing an even more remarkable story.
In 2011, Mauritania dropped to 207th in the world rankings. They were forced to withdraw from the Cup of Nations qualifiers last year. Ahmed Yahya then took over as chairman of the federation. With their €10 million funding from the FIFA Goal Project, they revamped the national stadium, built a modern headquarters and established an academy (they released a promotional video with incongruously bombastic music that at one point, baffling to an outsider, focuses on what seems like a blank wall; then you realize they are showing off the air conditioning, a poignant detail to show how bad the facilities used to be and how far they have come). Mauritania has qualified for three consecutive Cup of Nations and last Tuesday the 2019 champions recorded their first Afcon win against Algeria to qualify for the last 16.
They face Cape Verde, a familiar fixture at the Cup of Nations over the past decade, but that shouldn’t distract from how extraordinary it is that a country of 500,000 so regularly bleeds the noses of the established powers. Their rise is largely due to coaches who did not have the benefit of an upbringing in European academies: first the air traffic controller Lúcio Antunes and now the combative former defender Bubista.
Half of the coaches who started the tournament managed their own country, a percentage that remained stable during the previous two tournaments. (By contrast, three teams at the Asian Cup have ‘home coaches’.) That should be a positive sign for the African game and it also seems to make for better football. But night comes for the rumpled French journeyman.