Sporting Witness
Sporting Witness
Africa's football revolution
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October 8, 2020
9 minutes
Available for over a year
In 1999, ASECS Mimosas, one of the biggest teams in Ivory Coast, shocked the world of African football by fielding a team of youth players in the final of the African Super Cup. The youngsters had been handpicked and trained by French coach Jean-Marc Gillou, and with their speed and tactical sophistication they inflicted a shock defeat on the Tunisian side, Esperance. The ASECS Mimosas team is credited with modernising the African game, and bringing African talent to the attention of the biggest clubs in Europe. Robert Nicholson talks to Kolo Toure, who played in that African Super Cup final and later starred for Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City. The programme is a Whistledown Production.
PHOTO: Kolo Toure (right) with his brother Yaya Toure in 2002 (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)