Afcon 2017: Tiny Guinea-Bissau hope to emulate Portugal’s Euro 2016 success

Bocundji Ca, Guinea-Bissau captain, shown here with his Ligue 1 club Paris FC in 2015. Nolwenn Le Gouic / AP

In a small country nestled into the bulge of west Africa, squeezed on all sides by bigger nations, 2016 was quite a year for national pride in the sporting arena. There was, alas, no break in the long wait for a first Guinea-Bissau Olympic medal, of any colour.

But on football fields far and near to the capital Bissau, there was unprecedented success.

The country reached a senior continental tournament finals for the first time. Elsewhere, a son of Bissau scored the goal that won a major continental tournament finals.

That resonant moment took place in Paris, when a journeyman international player scored the goal that won the sport’s most followed continental championship, the Euros.

In Guinea-Bissau vivid celebrations followed Eder’s extra-time strike and the player’s pinch-me-I’m-dreaming reaction to his success. In Portugal, whose colours the Bissau-born Eder was wearing, the delight was even more pronounced.

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Eder long ago chose to play internationally for the country he grew up in, not his native land. It was not much of a choice in practical professional terms for Eder, the 29-year-old whose current club are Lille of France’s Ligue 1.

Nor for younger men from the broad Guinea-Bissauan diaspora who call Portugal home, including men such as Danilo, the Porto midfielder who also starred in the Portuguese triumph in France.

Portugal may have been relative outsiders at that tournament, first-time winners of a Euro with Danilo marshalling the midfield and Eder coming off the bench to administer the killer blow in a 1-0 win over hosts France.

But they are super-heavyweights compared to little Guinea-Bissau, who are rank outsiders in Africa.

Yet on Saturday, the country will play its first match at a Africa Cup of Nations.

Though there may be a regret in manager Baciro Cande’s mind that he cannot call on the scattering of compatriots now tied internationally to Portugal, the former colonial ruler of Guinea-Bissau, he has “retrieved” some dual nationals.

Notable among them are strikers Abel Camara, who played for Portugal’s U21s 10 times before switching to the land of his birth, and Aldair Balde, a former Portugal U20 player.

Cande hopes what Portugal did in Europe last June and July is something Guinea-Bissau can imitate over the next two weeks.

“Nobody gave Portugal much of chance of winning the European Championships last year,” the Guinea-Bissau president, Jose Mario Vaz, told Cande before the squad set off for Gabon.

“Let that be a motivation for you.”

The settlement of a messy dispute over unpaid bonuses, earlier this week, should arrest one possible cause of demotivation, too.

The experienced captain, Bocundji Ca, also assured local media that the players would be armed with “unbreakable solidarity, and go out onto the pitch with our heads held high”.

Ca, a central midfielder, has spent most of his career with French clubs.

Thirteen of his colleagues play at various levels in the Portuguese league.

Guinea-Bissau have worked hard to be in Gabon.

They are among their continent’s top 16 having eliminated 2012 champions Zambia in qualifying and survived an investigation into the eligibility of a player – goalkeeper Papa Mbaye – to keep the points they gained at the Zambians expense.

They can also look beyond Portugal for inspiration.

Two editions of Afcon ago, another Portuguese-speaking minnow, the Cape Verde islands, took their bow at the tournament and made a stirring foray to the quarter-finals.

Cape Verde has a population of half a million, Guinea-Bissau has three times as many citizens.

A strong start is important and Saturday’s opening game looks a stern test for Guinea-Bissau, drawn to take on Gabon.

The hosts will be well supported and ready to unleash the pace of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who takes some superb form into the event, with 16 goals from 15 Bundesliga matches so far this season for Borussia Dortmund.

Captain Ca, earmarked to police the Gabonese flyer, can expect a busy time.

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