Jean-Louis Gasset revealed on Thursday his list of 27 Ivorian players who will participate in the CAN (January 13-February 11) at home, barring last-minute injuries. And the coach decided: he did without Wilfried Zaha (31 years old, Galatasaray). He wanted to avoid relationship problems with a personality who would not have easily agreed to be a replacement. And who has never contributed much in recent years despite real talent (31 caps, 5 goals since 2017). Gasset has put together a solid group where Lazare Amani, the Union-Saint-Gilloise midfielder, (1 selection), and Ismaël Diallo (Hajduk Split, 0 selection) appear as surprises. But the Elephants will first expect a lot from Seko Fofana, Serge Aurier, Franck Kessié, Max-Alain Gradel or Sébastien Haller to lead this rather inexperienced group to victory. Gasset focused on youth, on the hopes of the country in particular (Simon Adingra, 21 years old, Ousmane Diomandé, 20 years old, Karim Konaté, 19 years old, Wilfried Singo, 23 years old, etc.). There are only three players playing in Ligue 1, Jérémie Boga (Nice), Oumar Diakité (Reims), Singo (Monaco), another in L2 (Yahia Fofana, Angers) but many have already passed through France. Note the return of Nicolas Pépé to the group, after physical problems and poor performances which deprived him of meetings in 2023.
L’Equipe.fr