What happened to Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations?
-Jorey, Charleston What troubles me is not Ivory Coast’s quick exit from the Africa Cup of Nations, but rather the mentality—held by many fans and perpetuated by a handful of know-nothing pundits—that the West African nation is somehow the standard-bearer of sub-Saharan African soccer. I have no idea where this mindset came from, but it certainly didn’t originate in Africa. I suspect it has far more to do with European ignorance than anything else. Because we recognize many of Ivory Coast’s players from the Premier League, La Liga and Ligue 1, we tend to inflate their abilities. There’s not anything particularly wrong with this; it’s down to familiarity. But there are hundreds of quality players playing their soccer at African clubs or in the Middle East. Many of them are stars at their clubs—not bit players such as Aruna Dindane, Gervinho and Siaka Tiene. Of course, there’s also the Drogba effect. The Chelsea forward is one of Africa’s best players of the past decade, and he plays for
