Beaumelle: Cote d’Ivoire coach keen on building a united team

Patrice Beaumelle has expressed his desire to build a united Cote d’Ivoire national team.

The Frenchman, 41, replaced Ibrahim Kamara as coach of the Elephants in March on a one-year deal.

He is expected to qualify the country for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations billed for Cameroon.

Recognising the potential in Cote d’Ivoire, Herve Renard’s former assistant coach has promised to form a formidable side that can challenge for honours.

“It's an honour; it's a team that we won with a few years ago. It is a pride to be the head of this team with a people who live football and who live to the rhythm of the results of their national team,” Beaumelle told journalist Zineb Elhouari during a live Instagram chat.

“What I want is to build a group of starving people and win matches. There are talents in this team but I want to build a united group, and it will be everyone's business.”

Getty Images

Since winning the 2015 Afcon in Equatorial Guinea, the Elephants have failed to many ake meaningful impact on the biennial championship, crashing out in the preliminary round of Gabon 2017.

At Egypt 2019, they crashed out in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Algeria on penalties after a 1-1 draw after extra time.

When quizzed about how far the team would go at Cameroon 2021, Beaumelle was not keen on making promises while insisting the need to first qualify.

“Everyone can say that the team was feverish, but it still passed the first round, it qualified for the quarter-finals before losing against Algeria who won the Nations Cup,” he continued.

“On the other hand, given the quality that is in this team, and the number of players who play in the biggest championships, I think that Cote d'Ivoire must be in the last square each time.

“But as we know, it is never obvious in such a high-level competition. There is the success factor, the cohesion factor then we have to find the right mechanism between the outgoing generation and the one that rises.

 “Before thinking of winning something, you have to qualify in a complicated group with Madagascar which is strong and which has built a solid group."

Cote d’Ivoire are third in Group K of the 2021 Afcon qualification series behind Madagascar and Ethiopia.