Ivory Coast’s football ‘Zombies’ eye improbable Afcon victory

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Hosts Ivory Coast will cap a remarkable comeback if they can overcome Nigeria in Sunday’s final of the African football championship, having survived multiple scares on a madcap four-week journey that has left home fans dreaming of an improbable victory.

Locals have taken to calling their team “les Revenants”, or the Zombies, for their ability come back from the dead during a nail-biting run to the African Cup of Nations showpiece match when all seemed lost. The performances have also provided an unusual case study in management, after the Ivorian authorities sacked their manager mid-tournament and replaced him with someone who had never taken charge of a senior game in his career.

The team’s progress is in keeping with the high drama that has characterised the tournament that pits 24 African nations against one another. Favourites such as Morocco and Senegal were eliminated early, while smaller nations such as Equatorial Guinea and Cape Verde have shown their skills. Cape Verde’s lack of available talent saw them turn to LinkedIn for recruitment, unearthing players such as the Irish-born defender Roberto Lopes.

The Afcon tournament, which cost Ivory Coast an estimated $1bn to organise, has been a celebration of African football at its most dynamic, with a new record for goals scored in the competition’s history.

The prize money of $7mn for the winner is also the highest in the competition’s history as Patrice Motsepe, the South African mining billionaire who is president of the Confederation of African Football, seeks to transform the competition and the profile of the game on the continent.

Solace Chukwu, a sports analyst at media group Pulse Sports, said that although attendances had not always been as high…