FIFA U-17 World Cup: African champions Mali ready to step up

Mali are the reigning champions of the African Cup of Nations. (Source: Express Photo by Narendra Vaskar)

For most of their first two days in India, Mali’s U-17 squad has spent their time either training or sleeping. It would be safe to assume that post the training session on Wednesday morning, the players would spend time flipping through channels on the hotel television.

This is because of a force of habit. For every Wednesday in Mali, television channels broadcast a new Bollywood flick. “Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan are the favourites,” says team media manager Tangara Yacouba. “The movies come with either subtitles or are dubbed versions.” The 21 teenagers will play the group stage of the Under-17 World Cup in the city that is home to their favourite movie stars.

Mali isn’t the poorest of African nations, but the drive to outshine their compatriots in the eyes of European club scouts has been a force that has taken the junior national team forward. “Most players aged 17 to 21 are at the same level and are struggling to be considered among scouts,” adds Yacouba. “There is a lot of pressure on them to improve and out play each other.” Still, the coaches don’t mind the competition. For that very ‘pressure’ has helped develop a generation of players that may well form the core of a strong senior team.

Till date, Mali has never qualified for a senior World Cup. But at the Under-17 level, they were runners up at the 2015 edition. They are also the reigning champions of the African Cup of Nations. And without Nigeria — the only team to have beaten Mali (in the final of the 2015 World Cup) — in India, the West African nation is one of the favourites. Success at the youth level, however, has been achieved largely in the last two years. In fact, 2015 was the first time the U-17 squad had qualified for the World Cup since 2001.

Prior to 2015, they made it to the continental tournament just twice in six editions. “There have been many training centres that have come up, and the facilities too have improved at clubs,” says Yacouba. “Club owners have realised that if players succeed, there will be more money coming to them and everybody will prosper.”

While most players start practicing by the time they are eight years old, privately owned clubs start picking up players once they turn 10.

In turn, the platform serves as an ideal setting for the national team to select its players. “Eventually there is the hope that these boys will help the senior team do well,” Yacouba adds. Head coach Jonas Kakou Komla, however, keeps his optimism in check. “When they’re at the junior level, it’s easier to condition them physically and psychologically. But only till they are 20,” he says. “After that they go abroad and develop different styles. So it’s difficult for them to gel when they come back to play in the national team.”

Preparation for the World Cup in India had seen the squad spend a three-week stint in Abu Dhabi, where they beat the United States 2-1, United Arab Emirates 4-0, and fellow African giants Ghana 2-1.

Interestingly enough, the coach had fielded his second string players to test his bench strength. On Friday, Komla will get a chance to test his main team, when the Malian teens take on Paraguay at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. It will be the second match of group B on the day, but for Mali, they hope, it’ll be their first step to a World Cup title. And for their new generation of path-breakers.