Beyond football, Qatar 2022 will be remembered for being the World Cup with the bracelet that we did not see. That bracelet with the slogan One Love -as a sign of solidarity with the LGTBQ collective persecuted in the emirate- that seven teams promised to wear before retracting due to the threat of sanction from FIFA.
In the match between Senegal and Ecuador, in which the pass to the round of 16 was at stake, a different one was seen on the arm of Kalidou Koulibaly. One more artisan, with the number 19 written by hand, who wanted to pay tribute to a Senegalese legend like Papa Bouba Diop. Tuesday marked the two years since the death of the soccer player who wrote the name of his country in gold letters in the World Cup history book.
Died at the age of 42 due to a degenerative disease, Bouba Diop was the author of the first goal for the Leones de Teranga in a World Cup. He scored the lone winner against none other than France in the opening game.
The world champion faced the appointment in Korea and Japan 2002 as brand new champion and was disappointed. The celebration of Diop and her teammates in the corner marking a circular dance around her shirt is one of those indelible images.
Koulibaly was ten years old at the time, a memory he will never forget. He lived with his family in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, in the northeast of France, the country where he was born and the one chosen by his parents when they left Senegal in search of more opportunities. Despite being French, the current captain of Senegal accepted in 2015 the call of Aliou Cissé, Diop’s teammate in that successful World Cup, in which they reached the quarterfinals.
“This is dedicated to the family of Papa Bouba Diop. We wanted to make him proud and pay tribute to him. He made me dream as a child,” said the Chelsea centre-back after scoring the winning goal against Ecuador. 20 years later, Senegal will be in the qualifiers. The party did not wait in the streets of the main cities of the country, packed with people celebrating the pass.
The victory was for Diop, the robust midfielder from Dakar who played for European teams such as Lens, Fulham, Portsmouth and West Ham. The Senegalese coach repeated it at a press conference and the president of Senegal, Macky Sall, also insisted. “You have paid homage, on this memorable day, to the illustrious Papa Bouba Diop. Go touch the stars now!” he wrote on his Twitter account.
International with his country 63 times and with eleven goals to his credit, Diop’s ’19’ was also present in the stands of the Khalifa International stadium in Doha. The most spirited Senegalese fans painted their numbers on their backs. After the game, the African footballers displayed a banner of the missing hero on the pitch with the message “a real lion never dies”. With the noticeable loss of Sadio Mané, if the current African champion repeats the feat of Diop and her colleagues it would be another dream come true.
