The Africa Cup of Nations was a catalyst for an Arsenal player to build his house in the right-back spot. Late last year, Emmanuel Eboué had difficulty making the Arsenal bench. Whether he would ever make the grade was an open question. Yet going into the Champions League semifinal with Villarreal the 22-year-old is the most talked-about full-back in Europe, receiving glowing tributes from no less than Fabio Capello.
The transformation is striking, but it is not the first for Eboué, who grew up in Abidjan in a tough and sprawling neighbourhood called Yopougon, famed for its bawdy night life. The eldest son of a family of four children, he was brought up by his adoptive grandparents and, like many of the Ivorian stars who will play in the World Cup this year, learned his football on chaotic streets and dusty pitches.
”Even when we stopped training at five or six, Emmanuel would hang out with his ball in the street until at least eight,” recalls his first coach, Romain Gomeh.
At the time Eboué was a striker and had a reputation as a fearsome free-kick specialist, which earned him the nickname ”Le Magnifique”. The youngster had a burning passion for the game. But he did not find much support at home. His grandmother was adamant he should not waste time playing football. ”When I saw him with his ball, above all after he failed his brevet exam [the rough equivalent of matric] I never stopped shouting at him,” remembers Eboué Omo. ”But now I am proud of him. Every day I pray to God to look after him and let him improve.”
Like all his family, Eboué is deeply religious; he is also a relaxed character, jovial and among the first in the national team to start singing in the dressing room.
Eboué’s stroke of luck was being chosen for Jean-Marc Guillou’s football school. Guillou, a former French international, set up the academy, which has a claim to be the most successful talent factory in the history of African football. The Ivorian internationals Didier Zokora (St Etienne), Yaya Touré (Olympiakos), Aruna Dindane (Lens), Arthur Boka (Strasbourg), as well as Eboué and his Arsenal teammate, Kolo Touré, are all products.
Guillou bought into Belgian club Beveren, and shipped his young Ivorian stars over wholesale. At one stage Beveren were starting with 10 Ivorians.
Eboué moved to Belgium in 2002 and quickly became a fixture in the team. Yet his childhood friends are convinced that his success there owes as much to his character as to the footballing education he received at the academy.
”He doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t go to bars; he didn’t even have a girlfriend before he went to Belgium,” says Simon Oulah, a fellow street footballer.
Wenger, whose close relationship with Guillou goes back to their days at Cannes in the 80s, had made Beveren Arsenal’s feeder club and he kept a close watch on Eboué. ”It was clear right from the beginning that Eboué was one of the men on the rise in the Ivorian colony at Beveren,” says the Belgian journalist Bruno Govers. ”But I think everyone has been surprised by just how well he has done.”
In January last year, Arsène Wenger brought Eboué to Arsenal but the catalyst for his breakthrough was this year’s African Nations Cup in Egypt. Before the tournament he had been a back-up, but Côte d’Ivoire’s French coach, Henri Michel, picked him for the Elephants’ opener against Morocco and stuck with him throughout.
The national technical director, Yeo Martial, says Eboué’s success wrought a transformation. ”The Nations Cup allowed him to grow in confidence and impose himself. He also had to play through injury, and that showed his character.”
On his return Eboué was thrust into Arsenal’s first team, taking advantage of Lauren’s season-ending injury. His first Premiership start was against Liverpool, and his next against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. The Madrid game marked him as a star in the making: he shut down Robinho at one end and still marauded down the flank. Since then Eboué has been a fixture and was particularly impressive against Juventus’s Pavel Nedved in Italy.
At home, friends and hangers-on flock to the family house whenever Eboué returns and several fan clubs have sprung up in Yopougon. Eboué’s grandparents have bought a satellite dish to follow every match and they and his friends are convinced he and his ”big brother” Kolo Touré will lead Arsenal to Champions League glory. Regardless, Eboué seems here to stay. ”As we say here, he has built his house in the right-back spot,” says Martial, ”and he is improving so fast and is nowhere near his ceiling.” — Â