Hosts of next year’s Africa Cup of Nations Elephant of Côte d’Ivoire on Thursday, 28 December unveiled their final 27-man squad.
Côte d’Ivoire’s head coach Jean-Louis Gasset included Borussia Dortmund striker Sebastien Haller, former Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe and Nottingham Forest Serge Aurier.
Also included are former Barcelona midfielder Franck Kessié, Max-Alain Gradel and Forest midfielder Ibrahim Sangaré.
However, there is no place for former Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha and erstwhile Manchester United defender Eric Bailly.
The AFCON 2023 will begin on January 13 and end February 11, 2024.
Côte d’Ivoire are in Group A alongside Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria and Equitorial Guinea.
Côte d’Ivoire final 27-man squad for AFCON 2023:
Goalkeepers:
Yahia Fofana (Angers/FRA), Charles Folly (Asec Mimosas), Badra Ali (Sekhukhune United/RSA)
Defenders:
Serge Aurier (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Willy Boly (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Ismael Diallo (Hajduk Split,/CRO), Ousmane Diomandé (Sporting Lisbon/POR), Ghislain Konan (Al-Feiha/KSA), Evans N’dicka (Roma/ITA), Odilon Kossonou (Bayer Leverkusen/GER) Wilfried Singo (Monaco/FRA)
Midfielders:
Jean-Thierry Amani Lazare (Union Saint-Gilloise/BEL), Idrissa Doumbia (Alanyaspor/TUR), Seko Fofana (Al Nassr/KSA), Ibrahim Sangaré (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Franck Kessié (Al-Ahli/KSA), Jean-Michael Seri (Hull/ENG)
Forwards:
Simon Adingra (Brighton/ENG), Jonathan Bamba (Celta Vigo/ESP), Jérémie Boga (Nice/FRA), Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund/GER), Karim Konaté (RB Salzburg/AUT), Christian Kouamé (Fiorentina/ITA), Jean-Philippe Krasso (Red Star Belgrade/SRB), Max-Alain Gradel (Gaziantep/TUR), Oumar Diakité (Reims/FRA), Nicolas Pépé (Trabzonspor/TUR)
13 Comments
IF IT IS IN NIGERIA, THEY WILL SURELY BE MAKE THE SQUAD, CLAIMING THAT THEY ARE LEADER, CAPTAIN & EXPERIENCE PLAYERS.
PASEIRO, THIS IS GOOD EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW. FORGET EGO, EXPERIENCE, LEADER, CAPTAIN, EXPERIENCE, DROP ANY PLAYERS THAT IS NOT FIT, GOOD & IN TOP FORM.
African team that Zaha and Baily couldn’t make the cut, deadly! This Afcon is going to be the bomb. Guinea Bissau is another banana peel. In this group, you snooze, you lose. Getting out of the group will not be a cakewalk and Cote D’Ivore is not the only formidable opponent.
I’ve said it all. Thanks.
Oops! U’ve said it all I meant to say.
Nigeria won’t go far with this coaching crews
With a lot of teams fielding professional players from European leagues, tactics would be more important than the skills or fame of individual players. We are about to see whether Peseiro is the acclaimed Portuguese tactician that he was sold to us or the fraud that some people think.
While I don’t have confidence in the coach and while I sometimes don’t like how our players usually waste begging chances. I still don’t think we should get scared. This is afcon now.
We are always favorites.
We should not allow the tension of the moment to make us turn Cote D’Ivoire into Brazil or Argentina.
Despite pessero low quality and his misplaced 442 formation and uzoho madness in goal, if you observe the games we have played. If we have scored some very begging chances we should have won some of these matches.
The friendly against Saudi, the friendly after that though we won but failed to convert some good chances.
If our players can just please convert half of the chances they create we can go very far at afcon.
The quality in 2013 is not as good as this one apart from the masters like victor Moses and Mikel obi.
So let us keep cool. Don’t let us turn African teams into what they are not.
I am only wary of the Moroccan team. If they can produce the performance at the world cup at afcon, it is I’ll be difficult to stop them.
Senegal is not as good as they used to be. Even the last afcon they had mane and luck.
Egypt was roundly dominated by us at last afcon but they have Salah. I am not sure if Salah and mane will be able to produce what they produced at last afcon.
These are top rated players who win tournaments even if their teams are not top notch. That was what Mikel and victor Moses did to us in 2013. Messi did the same for Argentina at the last world cup
Oshimem, ndidi, ihenacho and Boniface can rise to be these types of top rated players for us.
We have lacked that for so long now.
We have lots of them in the 1994 team and in 1996. Even if you have a sub standard coach, these players will carry the team on their shoulders.
They make other players play as beasts. In 2013, emenike, mba, ideye etc played Luke beasts because Mikel and Victor Moses were top rated players.
I pray ndidi playing in an advance role, oshimem, doing what he did for Napoli last season, Boniface, doing what he is doing for Leverkusen, ihenacho doing what he has always done for suoer eagles can be these x-factor players for eagles at afcon.
These types of players make average coaches and players to come out as kings and winners.
Ah…no homebased….??? LMAOO…!
Charles Folly (ASEC Mimosas, Ivory Coast),
Just one GK who wouldn’t even be first choice….?? With all the many talents in our ivorian league….??
A league where Kolo Toure signed straight from ASEC to Arsenal or Herve Koffi straight to Lille….??
How can we be hosting afcon on home soil and we dont have at least 5 homebased outfield players in the team…LMAOoo.
Our 1992 squad had more than 70% homebased players….LMAOoo
Strong squad + host = contender.
Ivory Coast named only 24 players.
Oh, sorry 27 players. I wonder why Pisero couldn’t make it up to 27 for Nigeria