“When you’re having a kick-about with your mates in your neighbourhood as a kid, you dream about lifting the World Cup, not just taking part in it. When I won it at the age of 17 in 2001, it was every player’s dream come true.”
In an exclusive interview, Emerse Fae, who is now in charge of Côte d’Ivoire’s senior national team, told FIFA he has nothing but fond memories of the 2001 instalment of the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago, in which he was a mainstay of the silverware-securing France side. At the time, the teenage midfielder was still honing his craft at Nantes’ academy and had not yet turned professional. He told us what that maiden taste of the global stage meant to him.
“It was my first international competition,” recalled the Nantes-born tactician. “You don’t really understand what the World Cup means until you get a little older. You might watch it on TV, but you don’t appreciate its significance at such a young age. To us, we were just playing in a tournament for France with our mates, and we didn’t grasp what we’d accomplished. At the time, we just threw ourselves into it, as teenagers do, without truly appreciating the impact of what we’d just done. It was amazing.”
Although France ultimately went on to claim the trophy, their campaign got off to a stuttering start when they lost 2-1 to Nigeria before going on to finish as group runners-up courtesy of a 5‑3 win over the USA and a 5-1 demolition of Japan. Jean-Francois Jodar’s charges then overcame Brazil 2-1 in the quarter-finals, before dispatching an Argentina side featuring the likes of Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez and Pablo Zabaleta by the same scoreline in the last four. In the tournament decider, Les Bleuets exacted revenge on Nigeria, clipping the Golden Eaglets’ wings in a comprehensive 3-0 success.
“To give you an idea of the impact that triumph had on us, we still have a WhatsApp group for everyone involved,” Fae said. “It includes us players, the doctor, the coach and the assistant coach. The whole crew from 2001 continue to share our favourite memories and moments in the group. In fact, no more than ten days ago, we were saying that we should arrange another get-together next summer.
“The reason this group is still going strong today is because we shared some truly special moments. We may have aged, but we remember that time as if it were yesterday, and the genuine bond we share remains intact.”
Those relationships have endured, even though Fae subsequently chose to switch allegiance and represent Côte d’Ivoire’s senior team and has gone on to coach the Elephants, who he guided to CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) glory on home soil early last year. “The guys congratulated me when we won the AFCON, when we qualified for the upcoming edition to be held in Morocco and when we booked our ticket to next year’s World Cup,” he said. “We’re still a close-knit group, and we continue to spur one another on to reach new heights.”
“When I was given the job on a permanent basis after the AFCON, I brought in Michael Fabre – one of the shot-stoppers in that 2001 squad – as a goalkeeping coach. As well as becoming world champions together with France, we both came up through the ranks at the Nantes academy.”
The 41-year-old coach also spoke about life after that U-17 World Cup success, which included lifting the Coupe Gambardella crown with his hometown club in the wake of the national team’s exploits on Caribbean soil.
“It changes your standing back at your club,” Fae explained. “People see you differently and you receive loads of offers from big teams. It was a defining season for me that enabled me to land a professional contract with Nantes the following year and paved the way for me to launch my career.”
The former midfielder, who also turned out for Reading and Nice, rounded the interview off by sending a message to the starlets gearing up to strut their stuff on the global stage in Qatar, where 48 teams will do battle to lift the coveted crown on 27 November.
“When you become a world champion at that age, it obviously opens doors for you,” he said. “You still have to keep your feet on the ground because you can’t just down tools and rest on your laurels. You mustn’t let up. When you’ve been a world champion and you back it up with hard work, that gives you a practically cast-iron chance of turning professional. That’s how things turned out for me. I was lucky enough to be kept on at Nantes and to forge a decent career for myself. And that’s another of the reasons why those U-17 World Cup memories will last a lifetime.”
