Wednesday, July 11, 2007

les Elephants!

Via Deadspin, just a fantastic article in Vanity Fair about what Didier Drogba and the Ivorian Soccer team has meant to the Ivory Coast as they attempt to end a civil war that's been dragging on for half a decade.

Here's a snip:

For nearly five years, Ivory Coast had been divided in two: rebel-held North, government-loyal South. But on a tour of the country in March, Drogba stunned his fellow Ivorians by proposing that the Madagascar game be played in Bouaké, the capital of the rebellion. North and South, unable to reconcile their differences through battle or peace talks, would set aside their guns and come together for a soccer game. And Drogba, already an international star, would become, in the eyes of Ivorians, something of a deity.

"When I saw Drogba say that on television, I got goose bumps," Christophe Diecket, an official with the Ivory Coast Football Federation, told me. "My wife cried. The people on TV cried. We Ivorians, we had this abscess, a sickness, but we had no way to lance it to get better. It couldn't have been done by anyone else. Only Drogba. He's the one who has cured us of this war."

You go read now. And remember, 8-0 thumpings also advance peace.

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