Patrick Vieira knows what it takes to win football's greatest prize --
and the former France star believes Africa is close to claiming a historic
first World Cup title.
Only three teams from the continent have ever
reached the quarterfinal stage of the tournament -- Cameroon in 1990, Senegal
in 2002 and Ghana in 2010 -- yet none have made it to the last four.
Despite high expectations, first sparked by
Pele's prediction in 1977 that "an African nation will win the World Cup
before the year 2000," there have been a series of disappointments.
Undoubted talent has often fallen foul to
ill-discipline on the pitch, arguments off it, ego problems, administrative
issues and sheer bad luck.
Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and
Algeria will all be hoping to overcome these hurdles in Brazil this time and
perhaps go even further than their predecessors.
And Vieira, who helped France to World Cup
glory on home soil in 1998 -- coming on as a substitute to set up Emmanuel
Petit's goal in the shock 3-0 final win over Brazil -- is convinced it will not
be too long before an African champion is crowned.
"I believe (they can) and I really hope
they will win the World Cup in the near future because I think that will help
African football to develop even better, even more," says Vieira, who was
born in Senegal but moved to France as an eight-year-old.
"And when you look at how many big names
African football has produced in the last few years, it's unbelievable,"
he told CNN.
Those big names include the likes of Samuel
Eto'o, Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure, who would all love nothing more than to
add a World Cup winners' medal to their lengthy list of honors in Brazil.
But while Cameroon and Ivory Coast have such
world-beaters among their ranks, Vieira feels they will need to be at the top
of their game to avoid past disappointments.
Quality
Ivory Coast has earned the nickname "the
chokers" -- cruel given the quality of opposition the nation has faced --
after a talented set of individuals struggled to perform when it counted most,
failing to make it out of the group stage in both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups.
"You need quality. When you look at the African national teams
individually, they are really talented so they've got talent," Vieira
says.
"But I think to be in the World Cup, you
need your talented players to be at their best because the quality will make
you win, the quality will make the difference.
"Quality will make the player make the
difference at the right time when your team needs you. You may just go on to
create one chance and you need to score the chance to go to the next round."
Vieira, though, believes that for talented
players to flourish they must be in a team that has togetherness and unity.
Cameroon lacked in that department during its
disastrous 2010 campaign, where the "Indomitable Lions" had been
expected to do well in the first World Cup held on African soil.
Eto'o threatened to snub the competition after being criticized by compatriot Roger Milla, himself a
former World Cup star for Cameroon.
And when he did turn up, the four-time
African player of the year -- who had just won the European Champions League
for the third time, on this occasion with Inter Milan -- struggled in South
Africa after not being used in his customary striker's role.
Arsenal's Alex Song, meanwhile, found himself
on the bench and coach Paul Le Guen was forced to quit after the team failed to
register a point for the first time in six appearances at the finals.
No comments:
Post a Comment