Miracle in Africa

By Alireza Bahrami

TEHRAN: Football has no shortage of dramatic stories; But what happened in the last few weeks in the African Cup was rare.

Ivory Coast fired its head coach after a heavy defeat in the last match of the group stage. The officials of the football federation of the country did not imagine that they would advance to the next stage. Their chances were very small. But in the final minutes of another match, the result was such that Ivory Coast, as the last team, advanced to the elimination stage, while it was ranked third in the group.

This was not the end of the story. No one agreed to coach this team. The coach-less team won the elimination game. They went from strength to strength to win the semi-final by one goal. They had a comeback in the final and won 2-1. They lifted the trophy. The team won without a coach.

But this was not the whole story.

Sebastian Haller

In July 2022, it was announced that Sebastian Haller, a former player of Ajax Amsterdam and current player of Borussia Dortmund, was diagnosed with cancer. He was a phenomenon and broke the records of Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski in the Champions League. He returned to the field in January 2023.

In February 2024, Haller scored the winning goals for his team in the semi-final game and in the final game of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Now, he has defeated cancer and made his people the heroes of Africa in the form of Hollywood dramas.

This is a true story; something akin to a miracle.