Senegal in hunt for World Cup glory: A journey explained
On a hot and humid July evening in Dakar, in front of 60,000 people at the Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal did the unthinkable. Bruno Metsu’s men qualified for their first ever FIFA World Cup. Senegal had to get through the chaotic maze that is CAF’s World Cup Qualification process which saw The Lions of Teranga placed with North African powerhouses Morocco, Egypt and Algeria – as well as minnows Namibia who naturally finished bottom of the group.
Despite their own individual caliber, no one expected much of the West Africans, who had a long history of never quite achieving their potential. But after getting 3 draws in their first 3 games against their neighbours from the North, they picked up steam then won 3 in a row.
In the final game on 14th July 2001, locked on points with Morocco and Egypt, they had to win at home against the star-studded Atlas Lions and they did just that. Enigmatic and often problematic winger El-Hadji Diouf converted Ferdinand Coly’s cross for the only goal of the game to send the stadium and the whole country into a frenzy.
The Dream
In Japan and South Korea a year later, Senegal found themselves in yet another complicated group. Facing defending champions France, two-time winners Uruguay and Euro ’92 surprise winners Denmark, Metsu relied on the same, somewhat young core that had seen Senegal qualify for the tournament and they repaid the trust.
Papa Bouba Diop scored the only goal as Senegal shocked the world and beat France 1-0 in the opening game. 1-1 and 3-3 draws against Denmark and Uruguay respectively followed that incredible victory and Senegal finished 2nd in the group, advancing to the last 16. Here they faced a no-nonsense Swedish side who wasted no time taking the lead. But Henri Camara equalized before half time and in the era of the golden goal Camara scored again in the 104th minute to send Senegal to the quarter finals, becoming (at the time) only the second African nation to achieve that feat.
That would be as far as the dream would go. The golden goal giveth, and the golden goal taketh away. Senegal lost 1-0 to a 94th minute dagger by Turkey but returned home to a hero’s welcome.
The Core
The heroes of that “triumph” were a rather odd collective. With only one player over the age of 30, Metsu had called upon young, hungry players with a lot to prove and they did just that. Half the members in the squad weren’t regulars for their clubs in France (where 21 of the 23 individuals played). Many were rewarded with big moves after making headlines in Asia.
Within France, a number earned moves to bigger clubs that frequently graced European club competitions; Tony Silva to Lille and Habib Beye to Marseille. A larger number moved across the pond; Ferdinand Coly and Aliou Cissé joined Birmingham City and more notably Salif Diao and Diouf signed with Liverpool.
The likes of Henry Camara, Bouba Diop, Sol Camara, Beye and Diouf had fruitful careers in France and England after being launched into the stratosphere by Metsu. Many of the other moves, however, proved unsuccessful but you can’t blame any of them for jumping at once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to change their fates.
Regardless, a crucial figure emerged from this batch.
Aliou Cissé and Changing the Narrative
Captain during the tournament, then 26-year-old destroyer Aliou Cissé had an uneventful club career bouncing around France and England as a rotation player. Frustrated with the lack of success during his club days, he was also dissatisfied with the narrative surrounding Senegalese football; the perennial underachievers.
In the 12 years leading up to the Japan-South Korea bonanza, Senegal had qualified for 5 AFCON tournaments, hosting the 1992 edition. Despite having an assortment of big names plying their trade in the French top flight, they only made it past the quarter finals twice; finishing fourth in 1990 and runners up in 2002 to Cameroon just six months before their journey to the east.
This would continue after the World Cup then bridged into Senegal’s decline. In the 5 editions between 2008 and 2015, Senegal qualified thrice and were knocked out of the group stages on all 3 occasions. A lack of dressing room leadership as the old guard aged or faltered at club level, failure to develop or attract quality footballers and bi-nationals, a disorganized federation that could barely arrange friendly matches and a wide range of coaches, 8 in 13 years to be exact, playing out of touch 90’s football saw Senegalese football grind to a disappointing halt.
The culmination of all this was Diouf, always in the news, being banned from the team after commenting on the federation’s corruption and angry fans storming the FA’s headquarters and setting a team bus ablaze.
That’s where Aliou Cissé comes in. Fresh from a respectable stint with the under 23s, the man affectionately known on social media as Coach Offset (owing to his likeness to the American rapper) was given the senior team job in 2015 and their performances steadily improved.
A quarter final exit to their rivals from the Sahel, Egypt, in 2017 was followed by comfortable qualification to the 2018 World Cup in Russia where they were a couple of bookings away from advancing to the next round. Building a new core around the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly, Idrissa Gueye and global superstar Sadio Mané, Cissé guided Senegal to their first AFCON final appearance since he was captain in 2019. A slim defeat to Algeria did nothing to dampen spirits and in 2022, Senegal beat Egypt twice in the space of two months for two landmark achievements in their history; in early February to clinch their first ever AFCON title and a month later to qualify for their third World Cup appearance.
The change in mentality under Cissé is evident. “Going to the World Cup and doing big things is our objective and these players need no motivation. They’re working harder than I expected every single day to achieve that and the idea of a defeat isn’t even a scenario they’ve entertained,” he said in a press conference before the double header against Egypt in the playoffs in March.
The Near Future.
It’s a journey that ties itself together neatly in more ways than one. Despite their enviable success, Senegal and Cissé still feel like they have a lot to say and a lot to prove.
With a new state of the art stadium and a strong, tight, ever-improving squad that draws talent from all of Europe’s top 5 leagues and a new young sub-group are eager to write their own story.
Household names adorn the ranks of The Lions; the likes of stalwarts Mané, Gueye, Edouard Mendy, Papy Mendy, Koulibaly and Cheikh Kouyate have all made names for themselves or are currently doing so in the English Premier League, joined in the most prestigious country in the European footballing world by bright youngsters Ismaila Sarr, Pape Matar Sarr. Their French connection remains strong with Monaco-based Kreppin Diatta and Ismail Jakobs and native Parisian Abdou Diallo who recently left the French capital for a move to Germany. In Cissé’s own words, “Senegal now have a problem of wealth (squad depth) and everyone has something to say.”
The boys from Dakar aren’t hoping history repeats itself, they’re aiming to take it much further than it has ever gone.
