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The Nairobian

Le Roy 'proud' ahead of eighth Cup of Nations

Football

By Game Yetu | Jan 14, 2015

Congo's head coach Claude Le Roy calls to his players during Congo's African Cup of Nations Group B soccer match against Mali, at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Veteran French coach Claude Le Roy, who is preparing to take part in a record eighth Africa Cup of Nations, has seen it all in his many years working on the continent.

The 66-year-old, who will lead outsiders Congo Brazzaville into their first Cup of Nations since 2000, says securing qualification for the tournament in Equatorial Guinea can go down as arguably his best achievement yet in the African game.

“Yes, I’m proud, perhaps all the more this time because many experts thought it inconceivable that Congo could qualify from a group containing South Africa, Nigeria and Sudan, especially after not having been in the tournament for 15 years,” said Le Roy.

Le Roy, who had an unremarkable playing career in his home country, first went to the Cup of Nations in 1986 with Cameroon, when a side featuring the likes of Roger Milla lost on penalties to hosts Egypt in the final.

Two years later, he led Cameroon to glory in the competition in Morocco, beating Nigeria in the final.

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A run to the semi-finals with Senegal followed in 1990, and also coached the Lions of Teranga on home soil in 1992, while in more recent years, he has enjoyed two spells in charge of the Democratic Republic of Congo either side of a stint with Ghana.

Describing his years in Africa as a “human adventure”, Le Roy says he has never changed his style, even during spells in Asia and, briefly, in England.

“I work as I have done everywhere I have been, from Shanghai to Cambridge to Cameroon.

When I went to Oman, they had been waiting 40 years to win the Gulf Cup and we won it (2009),” he said.

“I don’t gift my players anything. I tell them exactly what I feel. When you have 23 players you are a different coach with all of them.

It is incredibly stupid to say you are the same with all of them. I try to give them responsibility. I don’t try to act as their father.

—Agencies