We Must Believe Africa Can Win WC- Drogba

Ivory Coast legend Didier Drogba says the historic under-performance of African teams at Russia 2018 will benefit the continent in the long run.

“It was a difficult result for the African teams, but I think it is also good. It is important to see this, and witness this to understand that we need to change,” Drogba told RT in Moscow, where he has acted for the past month as a pundit and ambassador.

“I think mentally, we need to believe that we can go to the World Cup to win it, not to participate,” he said.

All five African sides – Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Senegal – did not qualify from the group stage of the World Cup finals.

Drogba says that even the one that came closest – Senegal, who missed out on a fair play tiebreaker – lacked a “quality spine” to guarantee success, despite fielding several star players.

But, while careful not to trade in cliches about the underachievement of a continent that appears to be falling behind on the biggest stage, despite continuing to produce world-class players, Drogba did say that the tournament mentality of some African teams remained weak.

“In West Africa, if you don’t get the result you expected, people go ‘It’s OK, next time I will do better. It’s OK, it’s God’s will,'” said Drogba.