Haller unhappy with disrespect being showed towards AFCON
Sébastien Haller, Cote d'ivoire forward, called out the disrespect directed towards AFCON in a recent interview with De Telegraaf.
Sébastien Haller, who is part of the players that will leave their respective clubs in Europe to play in AFCON, waste no time in calling out the disrespect being displayed towards AFCON.
Haller is expected to lead the Cote d’ivoire attack in Cameroon 2022 as they aim to win the Afcon title for the third time.
Haller has been in an impressive run of form especially in the Champions league, scoring 10 goals in the group stage- a remarkable feat He is also the leading scorer in the Dutch league with 12 goals in 17 appearances.
The former West Ham united striker was questioned if he would prefer to choose to stay in Ajax to play the important games against FC Utrecht and PSV Eindhoven or go to Cameroon. The Ajax star was unhappy with that statement, and did not hide his feelings about the statement.
“This statement shows the disrespect for Africa,” Haller said in an interview with De Telegraaf.
“This tournament was actually supposed to be held in the summer, but was postponed due to Covid-19. Of course, I will go to the AFCON to represent Ivory Coast. That is the highest honor.”
“And of course, I would have liked to have taken the plane in between to be able to play against FC Utrecht and PSV, but that is obviously not possible.”
He labeled the situation as frustrating, having to choose between representing club or country.
“That’s really shit, I play with Ajax for the title, and those two matches are very important because they influence the ranking.” The 27-yeard old added.
One week ago, Patrick Vieira echoed the same statement, stating the importance of AFCON, and the competition needs to be respected just like the European championship.
The Crystal Palace manager is set to lose some of his key players to Afcon. The players include Jordan Ayew, Ghana, Wifred Zaha, Ivory Coast, Cheikhou Kouyate, Senegal, and Jeffery Schlupp, Ghana.
Cote d’ivoire will start their Afcon campaign against Equatorial Guinea at Japooma stadium on January 12 with Haller expected to lead the forward line. The elephants will be counting on the striker to bring his European form to Cameroon, and help the team win the title.
