French influence . . . Ivory Coast's French coach Herve Renard walks by as his 2015 Afcon-winning players celebrate their victory in Equatorial Guinea last month. Renard, who also won the 2012 Afcon with Zambia, was born in Aix-les-Bains in Rhone-Alpes region of western France, near Switzerland and Italy.
France is inadvertently a major player in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations currently on in Equatorial Guinea. Dozens of players representing various teams have players born in the former colonial power, or players who either were raised in France or live there because of their contracts with French clubs in all levels.
There are African players from the elite Ligue 1 down to independent soccer academies in all corners of France.
On the opening day of the tournament Spanish-born Emilio Nsue scored for Equatorial Guinea but Congo’s Thievy Bifouma opened the flood gates for French-born players when he equalised later in the match.
The stylish striker was born Thievy Guivane Bifouma Koulossa in Saint-Denis in Paris, within sight of the famous Stade de France. He plays his football in Spain, for Almeria on loan from Espanyol. Bifouma played youth international football for France, with under-20 and under-21 caps. It is remarkable that he's such a central figure for the Red Devils, for whom he only started playing since last year.
In neighbouring Gabon, captain and glamour boy Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was also born in France, in a quiet city of Laval in the north-west. The Borussia Dortmund winger sored as Gabon beat DR Congo 2-0 in the second game of the tournament. More French-born players found the net for their African teams in the subsequent matches, the best being the two scored on the second Saturday of the tournament. On the evening's first match in Group D, Bakary Sako opened the scoring for Mali with a powerful effort against Ivory Coast. Sako was born in Ivry-sur-Seine, in the southern of Paris. He played under-21 internationals for France, before switching allegiance to the country of his parents.
His story is similar to Mali teammate brothers' Mustapha and Sambou Yata, who were born in Beauvais, two hours drive from Paris. Needless to add, Sambou scored Mali's first goal of the tournament.
In the second match that night, Guinea captain Ibrahima Traore cancelled out Cameroon's early lead as the match ended 1-1. It was a brilliant effort by the likable Traore, who was born in Villepinte, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. One of his Guinea teammates, Florentin Pogba, was born in the capital Conakry but grew up in France where his family had moved. He played for the French under-20 team.
Pogba's more famous younger brother, Paul Pogba of Juventus, was born in eastern Paris and he plays international football for his native France.
Other notable French-born stars of the Afcon include Yannick Bolaise, who was born in Lyon, and scored DRC's only goal in the tournament so far, in the draw against Zambia, and Algeria's Yacine Brahimi. Brahimi, also born in Paris, played a full spectrum of French youth squads: U-15, U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19, U-20 and U-21. For Algeria he represents all that is good about country's mission to recruit from France descendants of Algerian immigrants in France. The benefit of this was players who enjoyed world class development structures in the country of their birth. Algeria are a totally different team now, qualifying for the last world cup and rising to the top of African football rankings.
Even more crucial is that with five coaches France also enjoy the lion's share among the coaches on duty in the 2015 tournament. These are Christian Gourcuff (Algeria), Claude Le Roy (Congo Brazzaville), Michel Dussuyer (Guinea), Herve Renard (Ivory Coast) and Alain Giresse (Senegal). Second best are Belgium and Portugal, with two apiece - Belgians Paul Put (Burkina Faso) and Georges Leeskens (Tunisia) and Portugal's Jorge Costa (Gabon) and Rui Aguas (Cape Verde). Of the last four, only Leeskens has advance to the next round.
I don't know how many players in this tournament were born or groomed in France, but what is clear is that the presence of the former colonial power in north, west and central Africa has an influential presence in Equatorial Guinea right now. Depending how the tournaments concludes, should the final contain teams with such players, and those who went to France to play professional club football, the France will have every right to boast that they were the biggest country in the 2015 Afcon.
