Two absences caught attention when the Ivory Coast list for CAN 2025 was announced: those of Simon Adingra and, above all, Nicolas Pépé. If Émerse Faé clearly justified his choice regarding the Sunderland winger, he was not so precise at the moment to mention that of Villarreal. “It’s not a sporting sanction,” explained the Ivorian coach. If we stuck to the sporting aspect, he would obviously be with us. He was in the performance box, afterward, to make a list, you have to take into account a lot of elements, whether on or off the field. All of these elements led to Nico not being on the list. »
For his part, the former Lille and Arsenal player reacted to his non-summoning on his Instagram account. “Double punishment for me,” he wrote. It’s football, it’s life. Thank you to La Liga, to my club Villarreal and to all those who gave me their support after these last days of harassment and racism. Good luck to my teammates. »
Before the list was announced, Pépé had indeed been targeted by a wave of racist comments after criticizing Morocco’s selection during a video filmed with content creator Just Riadh. “We have three stars and you (Algeria) only have two,” said the thirty-year-old. But watch out for the Moroccans, they are there. How many stars do they have? A ? They must have won that in 1818, we weren’t born, even my daron wasn’t born. »
“Aside, direct”
Result: a flood of racist insults, hence the feeling of “double punishment” for the Ivorian international (50 caps). Nicolas Pépé’s sister defended her brother on Instagram. “He got excuse when he is the victim! But since he was going to Morocco, well it was better to do that eh… wrote Corinne Pépé. And is he the one being punished? Is he the one being pointed at? »
But the winner of CAN 2024 was at the heart of the news for another outing, made during the same video. He spoke on the issue of dual nationals. For Pépé – if he was a coach -, “a player who chooses the French team then an African selection”, “it’s sideways, direct”.
“That means that Ivory Coast is your second option,” he said, before moving on to a more specific case. That of goalkeeper Alban Lafont, born in Ouagadougou and played by the French youth teams from U16 to U21. “He is Burkinabé, but he chose Ivory Coast,” noted Pépé. We’re teasing him about that, but it’s not a problem. It stops there. He is not Ivorian, but he has the passport. » For Faé, this public reflection, on the contrary, potentially represented a concern.
Worth a look
