After a good 2025 African Cup of Nations ended in the quarter-finals against Egypt (3-2), on January 10 in Agadir, Ivory Coast will prepare for the 2026 World Cup with ambition. The 2024 African champions will try to survive Group E of the World Cup in North America, with shocks against Ecuador and Germany, on June 14 and 20 in Philadelphia then Toronto, and a third, more affordable match against Curaçao, on the 25th in “Philly”.
Emerse Faé can notably count on the experience of its midfielders, Franck Kessié, Ibrahim Sangaré, Seko Fofana or Jean Michaël Seri, as well as offensive prodigies such as Amad Diallo, Yan Diomandé, Nicolas Pépé and the new Elye Wahi and Ange-Yoan Bonny. The defense is also quality with the captains Odilon Kossounou, Evan Ndicka and Wilfried Singo, but Kossounou and Ndicka are injured!
Ivory Coast against the Blues in Nantes
A few days after the muscular injury of the rock of Atalanta, who needs two weeks to resume training, Ndicka went out injured with Roma, Sunday during the derby against Lazio (2-0 victory thanks to a double from Gianluca Mancini). The player trained at AJ Auxerre requested the change after a race in the first period (37th). He too could be affected in the ischios like Kossounou. A hard blow for this pillar of the Giallorossi, arriving in 2023 after his five years at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Evan Ndicka may not be operational at the start of the Selphanto camp, which has a friendly match against the French team on the program on June 4 in Nantes. It’s two weeks away and Emerse Faé shouldn’t be able to line up his typical central hinge. To see if Ivory Coast will approach its first World Cup match in better conditions against Willian Pacho’s Ecuadorians, who came second in the Amsud zone qualifiers and are very ambitious for this World Cup.
