Olawale Ajimotokan
3 January 2008
Lagos — With less than three weeks to the start of Ghana 2008, Super Eagles foes in the competition have started talking tough even as the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire are expecting to receive good news on the fitness of their talismanic skipper Didier Drogba.
Elephants' striker Haruna Dindane of Lens mirrored the team's confidence in their abilty to upstage their Group B rivals, which includes Nigeria, Mali and Benin, when he told the mass circulating local paper Fraternite Martin they would do their best to bring the Nations Cup home for the first time since 1992.
"At this level of this competition, all the teams are equal. It is up to us to prove at the event that we are the cup favourites. In any case, I have confidence in the group. Though all the teams in the group are strong, almost every one is united that the cup should return to Côte d'Ivoire," he said.
The added boast to the Ivorien cause is that the totemic Didier Drogba, given a 50-50 chance of playing against Nigeria in the opening match on January 21st is expected to begin light training this weekend having recovered from his injury.
The Chelsea striker, desperate to lead the Elephants in Ghana, opted to have surgery to correct a damaged miniscule in his knee about five weeks ago believing that having the operation early would give him enough time to recover.
And going by the optimism expressed by his manager Avram Grant after the operation, the African Footballer of the Year is expected to resume light training this weekend.
Meanwhile, the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire have officially settled for Kuwait as their training camp for this month's Nations Cup in Ghana.
Their Kuwait camp will run from January 7-14.
The Ivoriens opted for the oil rich Persian Gulf nation in preference for the Spanish resort city of Malaga, which the Ivorien Football Federation (FIF) considered would be unsuitable for the team because its weather is presently chilly.
Ironically while the Elephants let out the alarms on the weather situation in Malaga, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) insisted on preparing the Eagles in Malaga, stressing the Nigerian camp would open as scheduled on Sunday.
However, unconfirmed reports have it that the Ivoriens decision to move to the Middle East was made all the more easier by a lucrative offer to play some exhibition matches there.
The wealthy Kuwaiti Football Federation (KFF) is said to have made an 'irresistible' offer to their Ivorien counterparts for the Elephants to showcase their skills against the Kuwaiti national team.
KFF sees the Elephants as a good test for their side which kicks off its Asian World Cup qualification campaign next month, against the United Arab Emirate in Abu Dhabi.
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