Midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko (1 cap with the French national team in 2017) recently spoke about the possibility of playing for the Ivory Coast Elephants. Coach Emerse Faé was keen to respond.
“When I’m called up (to the French national team, ed.), I feel closer to Ivory Coast, even if playing for Les Bleus remains the ultimate dream. When you have dual nationality, you don’t realize how difficult it is to choose. In a way, if I were to play for Ivory Coast now, I would feel like I’m disowning myself. But I’ve evolved a bit, I’m not saying no, I’m not saying yes,” Lorient’s player confided to the sports daily L’Equipe last Sunday.
Emerse Faé responded with as much diplomacy as firmness on Monday on the Talents d’Afrique show on Canal+ Afrique: “Tiémoué Bakayoko is a very talented player, he proved it at Monaco, but his profile is not a priority for the Ivory Coast national team. Dual nationals should not join the squad by default. We have set a mindset in the last AFCON that we cannot deviate from.” So there is little chance of seeing the Paris-born player represent the Elephants one day, at least not as long as the former Nantes player is in charge.
After Monaco, the downfall
Tiémoué Bakayoko was at the peak of his career in 2017. French champion with AS Monaco, selected for the French national team by Didier Deschamps, the defensive midfielder, 23 years old at the time, was destined for a great future. The rest of his career, while not a resounding failure (Chelsea, AC Milan, return to Monaco, Naples, and now Lorient), has not allowed him to become a standout player in his position in Europe. Before returning to France with the Merlus, the midfielder, now 29 years old, had even struggled in Lombardy for the past two seasons, playing only about twenty matches.
