Cote D’Ivoire FA boss snubs Super Eagles, names favorites for AFCON 2023
Yacine Idriss Diallo, the head of Côte d’Ivoire football, has disregarded Nigeria’s Super Eagles as a front-runner for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Eagles will face off against the hosts, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau in Group A of this year’s competition.
Côte d’Ivoire will face the Eagles in their second group game on January 18 in Abidjan.
Diallo named three countries who he believes will challenge for the trophy.
“I trust our team (Côte d’Ivoire) but we know that we are not favourite. The favourites are Morocco, Senegal, Egypt, all those teams,” Diallo said.
“We’re building a new team. If you see our team now, I think 30% are very young, it’s their first competition. But we will try to bring a very good squad to be ready.
“So we will try to do our best to go as far as possible and try to win the trophy. This is why we are here.“
AFCON 2023 kicks off on January 13th, 2024, almost a decade on from the announcement that Côte d’Ivoire would be the hosts.
Commenting on the readiness of his country, Diallo believes everything is in place in terms of preparations.
“This event means a lot of things for our country, it’s a very important event. Since 2014, when it was decided that Ivory Coast would organise this competition, our country put in a lot of money.
“But more than money, we put our heart in this organisation. And now I can say that we’re ready. We’re really ready. I can say that.”
This is the second time Côte d’Ivoire would stage the AFCON since the 1984 edition.
