According to the source, the match that best encapsulates the failure of Ivory Coast’s Golden Generation is Greece 2-1 Ivory Coast in Fortaleza on June 24, 2014 — described there as the night when “their excuses finally ran out.”
At club level the group’s leading figures achieved near everything, the source notes. Didier Drogba is described as a Chelsea legend who played a decisive role in the 2012 Champions League final against Bayern Munich. Yaya Touré is recorded as having starred at Barcelona and as the only player to win the African Footballer of the Year award four times in a row. Kolo Touré’s career included Premier League titles with Arsenal as part of the Invincibles and later with Manchester City, with spells at Liverpool also noted. The source also lists Didier Zokora, Emmanuel Eboué, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho, Romaric, Aroune Koné and Wilfried Bony among the cohort with substantial European careers.
The source recalls that qualification for the 2006 World Cup came amid civil war and after Drogba’s well-documented appeal for peace, a landmark moment for the country. Ivory Coast were drawn in a brutal Group C with Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia and Montenegro, the source says, and while elimination followed, they pushed Argentina to a 2-1 scoreline, lost 2-1 to the Netherlands and beat Serbia 3-2 to register their first World Cup victory.
The source outlines repeated near-misses at the Africa Cup of Nations: losing the 2006 final to Egypt, falling to Egypt again in the 2008 semifinals, losing in the 2010 quarterfinals to Algeria, reaching the 2012 final in Libreville without conceding only to be beaten by Zambia, and a 2013 exit to eventual champions Nigeria. Those results contributed, the source argues, to the perception of a golden group that underachieved at tournaments.
According to the source, Ivory Coast’s 2010 World Cup draw — with Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in South Africa — was likewise difficult, and that campaign was overshadowed by an injury sustained by Drogba before the tournament. The source frames the 2014 loss to Greece as the clearest illustration of the gap between the squad’s talent and its tournament record.
