Drogba has what it takes, says Kalou ahead of Saturday’s vote to elect new Ivorian football boss

Ivorian football star Salomon Kalou has wished his former national team teammate Didier Drogba well ahead of Saturday’s Ivorian Football Federation (FIF) presidential election.

Kalou, a former teammate of Drogba at Chelsea, was speaking at the draw for the qualifying campaign for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) tournament to be hosted by Ivory Coast in Johannesburg.

Drogba will be up against Yatte Ellele Jean-Baptiste, Arnaud Aka, Laurent Kouakou, Idriss Diallo and Sory Diabate in the vote at the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation for Peace Research, and Kalou said whoever is elected should work to unite and improve Ivorian football.

“I think it’s good he is running this campaign and wants to help this country and its football,” Kalou said after the draw in which his country was drawn with Zambia, Comoros and Lesotho in Group H.

“I’m sure the other candidates also want to do the same. It’s a matter of choice and whoever is chosen will have to work for football because at the end of the day we want to make Ivorian football better.

“We should support each other as the football community in the Ivory Coast to improve our football. It doesn’t matter what the election outcome is.”

The 44-year-old Drogba has been on the campaign trail and Kalou is optimistic his former teammate can turn the fortunes of the Elephants and Ivorian football in general.

“Of course he has the qualities otherwise he would not have put his name in the running.

“I think he needs to be given an opportunity to see what he can do. The election is on Saturday and that’s when we are going to find out who wins.”

The election has been postponed several times since 202, due to disagreements over how some candidates’ campaigns were funded.

The FIF was placed under supervision in December 2020 by Fifa, which put in place a “Normalisation Committee” to try to resolve the crisis. The committee is overseeing the election of the new leadership.