{"id":52177,"date":"2023-12-15T19:48:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T19:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football"},"modified":"2023-12-15T20:30:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:30:41","slug":"solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football","title":{"rendered":"Solomon Kalou on Afcon: Ivory Coast is a land of football"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. <\/strong><\/span>Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast winger Salomon Kalou says Cote d\u2019Ivoire is excited to welcome Africa to the nation next year for the Africa Cup of Nations championship set for January 13 to February 11.<\/p>\n

With 29 days left before the biannual continental assignment serve off, Kalou, who boasts of 155 career club goals across spells with Feyenoord, Chelsea, Lille, Hertha Berlin and Botafogo said: “We are happy to welcome all of Africa.”<\/p>\n

“We can’t wait to celebrate football. Ivory Coast is a land of football. We had a lot of legends like Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure\u0301, Gervinho and so on. Players who made the colours of the country shine for many years. Organizing this Afcon is something very important for us, the last time we hosted this competition was in 1984.”<\/p>\n

Kalou was speaking to Cafonline as the West African nation’s 40-year wait to host the championship is expected to come to an end.<\/p>\n

“There is a lot of passion around this event. I want to thank His Excellency the President of the Republic, Alassane Ouattara, for the infrastructure put in place,” Kalou added.<\/p>\n

Kalou’s decade-long international career (2007-2017) yielded 27 goals from 93 appearances. Kalou who will be cheering the hosts added:<\/p>\n

“Playing the tournament in front of our supporters would have been a dream for me! I would have liked to be in my younger brother\u2019s place. Wearing the orange jersey, playing in front of my people and my heart beating to the sounds of their encouragement – I get chills just thinking about it.”<\/p>\n

Ivory Coast headlines Group A with Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Adding his thoughts on the group, he said, “Firstly, it\u2019s a group made up of very good teams, starting with Nigeria which is a very dangerous side. At each AFCON, the Super Eagles show great potential. During the last edition, Equatorial Guinea did well, and Guinea Bissau may be the surprise of the group.”<\/p>\n

“We will have to respect all the teams and above all, win the first match to start the competition well because that is where everything starts from.”<\/p>\n

He further urged the Ivorians to rally behind the team.<\/p>\n

“Our selection is made up of young players who need to be supported, and that is what we will do.”<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mozambique<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast winger Salomon Kalou says Cote d\u2019Ivoire is excited to welcome Africa to the nation next year for the Africa Cup of Nations championship set for January 13 to February 11. With 29 days left before the biannual continental assignment serve off, Kalou, who boasts of 155 career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":52176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[233,281,283],"class_list":["post-52177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-mozambique","tag-mozambique"],"yoast_head":"\nSolomon Kalou on Afcon: Ivory Coast is a land of football - Mozambique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast winger Salomon Kalou says Cote d\u2019Ivoire is excited to welcome Africa to the nation next y ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solomon Kalou on Afcon: Ivory Coast is a land of football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast winger Salomon Kalou says Cote d\u2019Ivoire is excited to welcome Africa to the nation next y ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mozambique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T19:48:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T20:30:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659428.658944.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"736\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Solomon Kalou on Afcon: Ivory Coast is a land of football\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-15T19:48:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T20:30:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\"},\"wordCount\":403,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/sites\/64\/2023\/12\/sm_1702659428.658944.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Mozambique\",\"Mozambique\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mozambique\/all-news\/solomon-kalou-on-afcon-ivory-coast-is-a-land-of-football\",\"name\":\"Solomon Kalou on Afcon: Ivory Coast is a land of football - 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