African Players Must Be Psychologically And Physically Prepared For Big Occasions- Desailly

Former Chelsea and French International Marcel Desailly and former Manchester United and Republic of Ireland Captain Roy Keane were guests at GUINNESS VIP™ ‘An Evening With…’ event in Lagos & Ibadan, Nigeria two days ago, an event which has been lauded as a lifetime opportunity given to football fans to get up close and personal with the football legends.

The two football idols shared stories and experiences of their football career and answered questions exclusively with fans via live chat question sessions and face to face for members who won tickets to be in the audience at the events.

The Ghanaian-born World Cup winner with France, Desailly in an interaction with a footyghana representative at the VIP event gave his assessment of African teams in the last decade.

“I think African teams have done so well in recent times but it's a shame that despite the abundance of talents in the continent, an African team has not won the World Cup. It was so painful seeing Asamoah Gyan miss that penalty in the last minute of the quarter-final game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup between Ghana and Uruguay in South Africa.

Missing that spot-kick showed the level of mental strength of an average African player during big games, and if we must get to our best on the world stage, we must start to improve our leagues and our players must always be prepared both psychologically and physically for big occasions.

The last games of the 2012 Africa Nations Cup qualifiers hold next month with three of the top African teams now on the brink of not qualifying for the competition, Nigeria inclusive.”

The former French international who is currently resident in Ghana operating a football academy in Accra, confirmed his desire to handle the Black stars as manager dates back to year 2007 and hopes he gets his chance in the near future.

“It’s true, but I wasn’t ready then. Also, I wanted to do something different after my long playing career, I mean something outside of football. But I am still interested in becoming manager of Ghana’s national team in the nearest future. It’s really something I would like to do one day. Though I did not play for Ghana, I am still hopeful that when the time is right, I will get the coaching job.”