Ivory Coast. The pre-tournament read.

1. Brighton & Hove Albion · Right wing

   Simon Adingra

   AFCON 2023's breakthrough name. Direct, two-footed, the player Brighton built attacking phases around for two seasons before he became the wide-forward Ivory Coast's tournament identity is now organised around.

2. Al-Ahli · Central midfield

   Franck Kessié

   Moved to the Saudi Pro League from FC Barcelona in 2023. The senior midfield voice. Faé's preferred deep-lying ball-winner and one of two AFCON 2015 winners still likely to start at this World Cup.

3. AS Roma · Centre-back

   Évan Ndicka

   The defensive lynchpin. France-born, France-raised, switched senior international allegiance to Ivory Coast in 2022; the AFCON 2023 back-line was built around him as the left-sided ball-player.

Agent-authored figures · needs verification before match-use.

1. 01 Sébastien Haller · FC Utrecht5 g · 4 of 6
2. 02 Simon Adingra · Brighton & Hove Albion4 g · 6 of 6
3. 03 Nicolas Pépé · Villarreal3 g · 5 of 6

1. 22 JAN 2024

   Lost 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea in the AFCON 2023 group stage

   Emilio Nsue hat-trick. Hosts on home soil and a country in genuine crisis through the knockout stages — Ivory Coast qualified only on the best-third-place tiebreaker.

2. 24 JAN 2024

   Jean-Louis Gasset dismissed; Emerse Faé promoted to interim

   Faé was on the staff. The federation explicitly wanted a Côte d'Ivoirien voice in front of the squad for the knockouts. His first match was the round of 16 against Senegal, the defending champions.

3. 11 FEB 2024

   Won AFCON 2023 final 2-1 vs Nigeria

   Sébastien Haller scored the winner in the 81st minute — eighteen months after his testicular cancer diagnosis. The trophy was lifted at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan in front of 60,000.

4. 15 FEB 2024

   Emerse Faé confirmed as permanent head coach

   Two-year contract through the 2026 World Cup. The country's first ever full appointment of a Côte d'Ivoirien head coach.

5. 5 DEC 2025

   Drawn into Group E with Germany, Curaçao, Ecuador

   Germany under Nagelsmann is the seeded test. Ecuador are a serious South American pot-2 piece. Curaçao are the smallest nation by population ever to qualify for a World Cup. A genuine three-way fight for second place.

• Ivory Coast won the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations on home soil — the most chaotic AFCON title run in modern history. Lost 4-0 in the group stage to Equatorial Guinea, sacked head coach Jean-Louis Gasset mid-tournament, qualified for the knockouts only on the best-third-place tiebreaker, then won every knockout match by a one-goal margin to lift the trophy.
• Emerse Faé was Ivory Coast's assistant coach when he was promoted to interim head coach mid-AFCON in January 2024. He won the trophy in six matches and was confirmed as permanent head coach two days after the final.
• Sébastien Haller scored Ivory Coast's AFCON 2023 winner in the 81st minute of the final — eighteen months after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in July 2022 and twelve months after returning to competitive football.
• Ivory Coast have appeared at three previous World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014) and never advanced past the group stage. They failed to qualify for Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 — eight years between WC appearances before this one.

1. 

   Germany

2. 

   Curaçao

3. 

   Ecuador

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