Has the theft of Vinicius Jr’s jersey meant that Morlaye Sylla will miss out on the 2023 African Cup of Nations? After being left off the Syli National squad list, the talented midfielder had to endure a completely crazy episode.
Vinicius Jr’s shirt, the heart of the problem
On 18 June 2023, Guinea took on Brazil in a friendly match. During the match, Brazil’s dominance quickly became apparent. After resisting Vinicius Junior and his team-mates for the first quarter of an hour, the Syli national conceded their first goal in the 27th minute, scored by Joelinton. Three minutes later, Rodrygo doubled Brazil’s lead, making it 2-0 in the 30th minute.
Despite conceding two goals in the space of three minutes, Serhou Guirassy managed to reduce the deficit a few minutes before the break, heading in Issiaga Sylla’s cross. At half-time, Guinea were trailing by just one goal, which surprised many observers.
After the break, Brazil regained the lead with a 47th-minute goal from Eder Militão. After the hour mark, Kaba Diawara made a number of changes to revitalise his attack, replacing S. Guirassy with José Kanté and F. Kamano with Yadaly Diaby, but to no avail.
The late substitutions of Morlaye Sylla, Seydouba Cissé and Mohamed Camara could not prevent Guinea’s defeat, as two minutes from time Vinicius Junior sealed Brazil’s victory with the fourth goal in the 88th minute.
Morlaye Sylla punished for Vinicius Jr’s shirt?
In the end, the Syli National lost 4-1 to Brazil, who had played the first half in a black shirt as part of their fight against racism in football. At the end of the match, Morlaye Sylla was able to obtain Vinicius Jr’s jersey, but once in the dressing room it had mysteriously disappeared.
Morlaye Sylla then insisted on searching the entire dressing room, including coach Kaba Diawara. By accusing his team-mates and coach of being “thieves”, the Guinean midfielder created a tense atmosphere in the dressing room. To date, he has not apologised to his team-mates, no doubt justifying his absence from the 25-man squad for the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations.
For Abdoulaye Camus, “a player who accuses his team-mates of stealing Vinicius Jr’s shirt, who doesn’t stop there and who even goes so far as to demand that all the players, including his coach and his entire technical staff, unpack their luggage to be searched because of a shirt offered by Vinicius, has no place in this team”.
After Vinicius Jr’s jersey, Ibrahima Cissé’s crackdown !
This particularly extravagant situation was followed by another incident within the Syli National. Ibrahima Cissé, who was excluded from the list of 25 players called up for the 2023 African Cup of Nations, lashed out at coach Kaba Diawara. Writing on his Snapchat account, the former Standard Liege player said: “This m***e coach. You have to insult the shit out of this coach (he’s not even a coach). This country works backwards. Unheard of. Zero coherence. I’m not in the mood, eh, the people who are going to come and defend this coach, I’m going to insult his mother and block him.”
After realising that he had lost his temper, the defensive midfielder apologised during an appearance on Guinean channel CIS TV. “It wasn’t me who wrote what happened yesterday. It was my friend who wrote,” he tried to explain. “I deleted it, but people had already captured it. But I take responsibility and I apologise to Kaba Diawara, with whom I have a good relationship, and I apologise to the coach and the people of Guinea,” he added. Belatedly.
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