Cote d'Ivoire enter the first 48-team World Cup as Africa's sixth best side in the Fifa rankings. In the third instalment of a nine-part series on African squads at the tournament, RFI looks at a nation making its fourth appearance.
For the first nine World Cups between 1930 and 1970, Côte d'Ivoire was either still part of France, not a member of Fifa, or simply chose not to participate in the tournament. When a national side attempted to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, they fell short. The same happened for the 1978 tournament in Argentina. It was a generation of players including Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré, his brother Kolo, and Didier Zokora who finally took Côte d'Ivoire to the World Cup in 2006, though they owed no small debt to Egypt.
Didier Drogba played 105 times for Cote d'Ivoire between 2002 and 2014 and scored a record 65 goals. Reuters/Louafi Larbi
Tense conclusion to qualifying campaign Going into the final round of African qualifiers on 8 October 2005, Cameroon were a point ahead of the Ivorians, who were playing group makeweights Sudan. Douala scored for Cameroon midway through the first half at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé, but Mohamed Shawky equalised 12 minutes from time. With Côte d'Ivoire 3-0 up in Sudan, Cameroon could not find the winner that would have taken them to Germany. Plea for peace amid celebrations As the Ivorian players and staff celebrated in their dressing room at the Al Merrikh Stadium in Omdurman, Drogba took a camera crew's microphone and appealed on live television for his country's warring factions to lay down their arms. "Ivorians from the north and the south. From the centre to the west. You've seen it - today we've proven to you that all of Côte d'Ivoire can live together, can work together toward a common goal - qualification for the World Cup. "Please, we're getting down on our knees. All of us. The only country in Africa with all these riches cannot just sink into war like this. Please, lay down all your weapons, hold elections, organise the elections, and everything will be fine." Weeks later, representatives from the government-ruled south and rebel-held north agreed to a ceasefire, and the national team played a match in the rebel-held north as a symbol of reconciliation. Group of death Then a 32-team tournament, the top two from each of the eight groups at the 2006 World Cup advanced to the last-16 knockout stages. Côte d'Ivoire were drawn in Group C alongside Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia and Montenegro - a pool widely described as a group of death. Drogba scored Côte d'Ivoire's first World Cup goal, but it came late in the second half at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg and Argentina won 2-1. The Elephants, as Côte d'Ivoire are known; were eliminated after losing their second game against the Netherlands by the same scoreline.
