At 36, Max-Alain Gradel proved that he still had the weapons to win a second CAN. Which he did brilliantly.
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Envy has erased the weight of the years. Going from substitute to starter and captain right in the middle of the CAN, Max-Alain Gradel registered his name for the second time on the list of winners of the largest continental tournament on African soil. Already in 2015, during its first coronation, Max-Alain Gradel started the tournament without starting. International Ivorian had scored the equalizing goal at the end of the match during the second day against Mali, never to leave Hervé Renard’s eleven.
Had a lot of amazing moments
For his CAN at home, Gradel experienced a completely crazy destiny, becoming a starter in the round of 16, under the leadership of Emerse Faé, after the dismissal of Jean-Louis Gasset. “ This CAN is special, it’s our home, and the enthusiasm as well as the scenarios make it very specialsaid the former Stéphanois before facing the DRC in the semi-finals. We had a lot of incredible moments. There was also a change of staff, so we had to immediately implement the ideas that the coach had. »
Aligned on the left lane of the attack Max-Alain Gradel gave everything until the title. “ Twice African champion, that’s my name from now on. It is important to emphasize this “, he said after the coronation. Humiliated during the group stage of its CAN and very close to elimination, Ivory Coast relied on the former Saint-Etienne player.
“ Max-Alain Gradel is the captain “, summarized for AFP Patrice Beaumelle, coach of Côte d’Ivoire from 2020 to 2022. “ He balances the team in collective work, he knows how to keep the ball, he is reliable, a hard worker and always thinking of the team before himself», summarized Beaumelle. And to add: “Realize: he has been international for 12 years, he has always been at the level, never injured, reliable, hard worker, always thinking of the team before himself. »
Max Gradel was not contaminated by Ivory Coast’s disastrous first round, he only started his tournament for the last seven minutes of the horrible 4-0 against Equatorial Guinea, when everything already seemed lost. But new coach Emerse Faé had the good idea to rely on his experience from the start of the tough matches.
► Read: Ivory Coast, the victory of a “group” with a “rediscovered state of mind”