Will Kouassi Gervais aka Gervinho be at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations? For now, there is no answer to that question but Ivory Coast coach Ibrahima Kamara believes a response will be made public soon.
Gervinho is one of best African professionals in Europe currently, since his return to the Serie A with Parma, after two and half seasons in China (Hebei China Fortune).
He has scored 8 goals already in 16 matches with the Crusaders. He was the hero at Allianz Stadium on Saturday as Parma frustrated Juventus to 3-3 stalemate, with Gervinho hitting a brace in response to Cristiano Ronaldo’s two goals scored earlier.
“Gervinho is doing very fine at the moment in Europe. He has recovered his sharpness and has been scoring goals. However, he has not shown any sign of an international return,” Kamara told ACLsports in Abidjan.
“He played last with the Elephants in 2015 when we won the AFCON in Equatorial Guinea. He did not play at the 2017 AFCON due to injury. However, we are convinced he would accept our invitation for the upcoming showpiece in Egypt in June.”
Following the retirement of some members of the Ivorian ‘golden generation’ like Yaya Toure from the team last year, Gervinho said he was not thinking about quitting.
“He has never sent in any letter to us about his future with the team. We still consider him as a full Ivory Coast international. We can’t imagine an AFCON in Egypt without a player like Gervinho. We will decide very soon on his situation,” he said.
Already qualified, Ivory Coast will play their final game of the 2019 AFCON qualifiers against Rwanda on March 22.
