Cheick Tioté: The 2015 AFCON was
exciting and rich in experience
H
is name is Cheick Tioté. He is 28 years old and plies his football trade at Newcastle United in the
English Premier League as a defensive midfielder.
He
He was a member of the Ivory Coast squad that won the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial
Guinea early February.
Tioté was forced to watch the rest of the tournament from the bench due to a knee injury he sustained
in the Elephants’ second group match against Mali.
The former Twente player spoke to African Sports Monthly after his team’s victory, which is also
Ivory Coast’s second ever title in the competition.
To me every
qualified team
was a
favourite
African Sports Monthly: Were you
happy at all that the tournament had
to be moved from Morocco to
Equatorial Guinea?
Cheick Tioté: Not at all. Nobody was
happy. I think it was a big mistake by
Morocco. You can join me to attest that
there were no Ebola cases at the
tournament in Equatorial Guinea.
However, I think all thanks go to the host
country for standing up promptly to defend
CAF and African football. We are all
happy that the tournament went on
successfully without major problems.