For Marcel Desailly, the former captain of the Blues, the prospect of seeing an African team burst through the roof during the next World Cup seems very limited. He entrusted it to FrancsJeux on the occasion of his visit to Rio, for the Laureus Trophies.
FrancsJeux : 15 months before the 2014 World Cup, can you imagine an African team achieving a big performance next year in Brazil?
Marcel Desailly: No. I was pessimistic for African football in 2010, even though many had hoped that home advantage could be decisive. I am even more so today. In 84 years of the World Cup, no African team has reached the semi-finals. I can't imagine things changing next year in Brazil.
What are these teams missing?
African teams are still, for the most part, made up of a majority of players playing in their own championship. However, these national championships remain of an incomparable level with that of the great European nations. Certainly, these teams often have three or four stars under contract with clubs in England, France, Germany, Italy or Spain. But they no longer have enough playing time. When they arrive in their selection, for a World Cup, they have too rarely played 90 minutes in a row. In a World Cup, African players leave all their energy in the three matches of the first round. When the knockout matches come, against big European teams, they don't last the distance.
Would you be tempted by an experience as coach of an African team?
Not today. The possibilities are too limited. I don't want to take a team to say that I took one. I am in the process of obtaining my coaching diplomas. And I accepted a mission with the French Football Federation to bring French know-how to African countries, mainly to their coaches.
Not today. But tomorrow ?
Tomorrow maybe. But I would like to take a team that hasn’t won anything. In Africa, perhaps, or why not in Asia. Take it all the way down and bring it as high as possible.
