Entering the heart of an entire country thanks to the victory of the Blues at the 1998 World Cup, Aimé Jacquet did not only do happy this summer. As a result of his choice to summon 28 players to prepare the World Cup, the tricolor coach by being left to exclude six players two weeks from the start of the competition.
The announcement by Aimé Jacquet, on May 22, 1998, of banned players, forced to leave Clairefontaine in the night, was indeed going to leave six souls in pain. And if Nicolas Anelka, only 19, was able to bounce back, even winning Euro 2000 two years later, Martin Djetou, Pierre L'Aigle, Sabri Lamouchi, Lionel Letizi and Ibrahim Ba never recovered.
Ibrahim Ba was only 24 years old and was considered one of the greatest hopes of French football. Irresistible with Bordeaux, the former Le Havre had joined AC Milan in the previous summer and had come there a promising beginnings. But his exclusion by Aimé Jacquet was indeed going to tip his career. The interested party also recognizes him himself, not hesitating to admit that he had never digested this sidelining.
Ibrahim Ba always wants Aimé Jacquet
“I am still angry with Aimé Jacquet. I really think I deserved my place among the 22nd. I always live it as an injustice. It is a story that changed the course of my life ”, Had he also entrusted to the twentieth anniversary of the coronation of the Blues, adding: “Aimé Jacquet can always tell me that Christophe Dugarry, who was preferred to me, was better. But I won't believe it. “
Ibrahima Ba's career would therefore go from disappointment to disappointment. Reduced to the congruent portion in Milan, the native of Dakar tried to relaunch himself in Pérouse, Marseille or Bolton, but without success. He then went into exile in Türkiye and Sweden, but without more success and if Milan handed his hand two years later, he played his last match with Djurgarden at 32.
