Togo coach Hubert Velud has been among those suggesting football authorities should call-off the continent’s showpiece tournament following the machine gun attack that led to the inevitable withdrawal of Emmanuel Adebayor’s Togo on Sunday, yet Chelsea striker Drogba believes the moment has come for Africa’s football family to unite.
The sporting battles scheduled for Angola will need to be an electrifying spectacle if they are to lift the dark cloud currently hovering over the event, with news that the death toll in the terror attack had risen to three heightening the sense of shock that has descended on the sporting public.
However, Drogba is urging the African football community to put on a show to remember in the African Cup of Nations and with the World Cup finals a matter of months away, he believes his Ivory Coast side are capable of putting the continent on the sporting map like never before.
“People have an opinion of Africa and it is not so good, but we have to let sport unite us all,” says Drogba. “They see us as being behind the rest of the world in financial and in sporting terms, but this year give us a chance to show people a different Africa.
“Africa has some problems, we all know that, but we all have a chance to make 2010 the special year that puts this continent on the sporting map forever. We have this Africa Cup of Nations and then there is the big prize of the World Cup.
Didier Drogba 2010
Didier Drogba 2010
Didier Drogba 2010
Didier Drogba 2010
Didier Drogba 2010
