The Story of how Emerse Fae became the Fairy who led Elephants to a historic Afcon 2023 title, will remain with Ivorians Forever.
The Elephants came from almost being knocked out, to win Afcon 2023 title.
After they lost to Super Eagles of Nigeria 1 - 0 and a more embarrassing defeat 4 - 0 lose to Equatorial Guinea underdogs, they needed to wait for the last group game, at mercy of Morocco helping them defeat Zambia, to secure qualification for Round of 16, as one of the best third place teams.
It became clear to Ivorians that they needed to do something extraordinary to continue their progress as host of this African cup of nations tournament. One thing they decided to do is to find a fairy, and how they did this is a story for another day.
The Ivory Coast sacked their head coach and French tactician, Jean-Louis Gasset and replaced him with former midfielder Emerse Fae who was also one of his assistants. Fae was a young coach understudying the French coach, but turned out to be the fairy Ivory Coast needed to win the title.
It became clear that their fortune has turned around for good when they defeated the defending champions and star studded Senegal. And it was sweet sweet revenge when defeated the bragadious Nigerians who almost took over Abidjan when Super Eagles defeated the Elephants at the group stage.
Cote d’Ivoire are the champions of Africa and The young tactician Emerse Fae was voted the Best Coach of the Tournament.
Emerse Fae is full of excitement following the Elephants successful campaign at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The West Africans have now won the AFCON title thrice.
“I still find it hard to believe it. We went through all the emotions. This competition will mark my life, that’s for sure,” Fae told reporters after the game.
” I took the reins of the team, on my birthday and we were almost knocked out, yet things turned around thanks to the hard work of these players and today they have been rewarded and more importantly, they rewarded our loyal people.”
