Former Arsenal, Manchester City and France defender Bacary Sagna predicts that an African team will reach the World Cup final in the near future and feels Morocco are on the right track to achieve that.
Sagna — who is in SA to work as a pundit for SuperSport TV — has been impressed with the performances of the African teams at the World Cup this year, saying they are more structured than before.
The 43-year-old former right-back said the only advice he can give to the African teams is to work on improving their mental strength after Bafana Bafana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo were all knocked out after conceding at the critical phase of their matches.
“I think we can only have a positive chat about Africa and about them performing, even where they exited the way they did,” he told Sowetan. “I will be more positive and focus on young players who were able to showcase their talent and show they can really play football,” he said.
“I want to focus on the progress and closing the gap between Africa and Europe, which is much more organised in structures, which is very important.
“[African countries] are now focusing more on youth development, especially Morocco, which started long ago, and I’m sure one day you will have an African team reaching the final of the World Cup. So, it’s good.
The continent needs to be aware that it has talent.
— Bacary Sagna
“I was born and raised in Europe but I used to travel a lot to Africa. The only thing I can say is that the continent needs to be aware that it has talent.”
Sagna explained what Morocco have been doing differently as they reached the last 16 of the World Cup.
“Well, in 2009/10 they invested in the [football] academy, so the fruit of that investment is out now,” he said. “I think [Morocco] understood that if you want to have a quality team you need to be focusing on developing players, and that needs funds.”
Sagna said he continued to back France to lift the World Cup this year.
“France has a good chance to win the World Cup. They had a slow start against Senegal in the first half, but since then, they have been one of the best-performing teams in the tournament.”
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