Ivory Coast U-17 sensation Coulibally races to jubilate goal

Ivory Coast coach Alain Gouamene has blamed his team’s capitulation at the 2011 Fifa U-17 World Cup to the country’s recent political crisis.

The Young Elephants quickly raised hopes at the ongoing Mexico 2011 when its wonder kid Coulibaly Souleymane, 16, powered the West Africans to the knockout stage, scoring a record eight goals in the process.

However the then only standing African side in the tournament surrendered a two-goal lead to get beat 3-2 by France at the round of 16 stage.

But Gouamene says their eventual loss stemmed from lack of preparatory competitions as a result of the five-month post-election crisis that hit the west African nation early this year.

“After the African Youth Championship held last January, my team was plunged into a state of inactivity for five months due to the political crisis in the country,” Gouamene told the Ivorian FA website.

“I only maintained the framework of the squad and added some few professionals before we went for a two-week fine tuning in France and Mexico ahead of the competition. Nothing more than that,” he said.

However, the former Cote D’Ivoire international believes his team has a bright future.

“I’m happy because technically, my boys produced a beautiful football and this generation will be heard of in the near future,” he added.