Alain Traoré: "Finish this Confederation Cup in style"

The Burkinabè Alain Traoré.

AFP / Alain Traore

Text by: Martin Guez

4 min

Alain Traoré is preparing to play his second Confederation Cup final in a row.

His Moroccan club, La Renaissance de Berkane, faces the Egyptian formation of Pyramids FC, this October 25, 2020 in Rabat.

For Mondial Sports, the Burkinabè striker looks back on this long-awaited match.

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Alain Traoré

We're good, we're good!

But we still have in mind the final of last year, lost on penalties ... We hope not to relive the same thing.

We give ourselves every chance to win this Cup.

Last year, you narrowly failed against the Egyptians of Zamalek.

This time you find another Egyptian formation, FC Pyramids, but you are more experienced.

This time, is it the right one for Berkane

That's what we say to ourselves: it's the right one!

We have a lot of experience.

Last year was our first final.

This time, it's Pyramids who will play their first final.

It's a very good team, with a lot of resources and good players.

We are wary!

Compared to last year, the context is very different

We're not apprehensive, because we've been playing in empty stadiums for two months.

We are prepared for this.

The peculiarity is that it will be played in a single match.

It's 50/50.

Nothing is done, you have to give your all, because it's a real cup match.

And above all, it's a final!

As they say, a final is won, no matter what.

It's a marathon competition, which Berkane started more than a year ago.

Isn't it too difficult to keep track

Ah!

It's very, very complicated… we've been together for 14 months, traveling for 14 months.

We traveled all over Africa, we even went to Madagascar to play a match.

It's very, very long, but you have to stay focused and make sacrifices to end this Sunday in style.

In front of you, you will find another attacker, another Stallion, it's Éric Traoré

Eric, it's a great game!

He goes fast with the ball and without the ball.

We count a lot on him in selection.

He has already proven himself in the national team.

We know him very well, we will watch him as he should.

The Burkina Faso Stallions impressed in the last friendly matches in October, with victories against Madagascar and the DRC.

Is the selection ambitious again

Of course, we've always been ambitious!

We have always played the leading roles in the African Cup of Nations.

We missed the last CAN, but that did not prevent us from coming back well!

There, we have a good generation with my little brother Bertrand Traoré and Eric Traoré who we were talking about.

Without counting on Lassina Traoré who is at Ajax.

They are excellent quality players.

We are going to build on it and try to build a competitive national team.

And without forgetting Alain Traoré to supervise all these beautiful people

(laughs)

We are still two or three elders to support the young people.

Like Charles Kaboré, Razak Traoré and me.

We're still here!

In our Berkane team, we have another international player, Issoufou Dayo, who is an excellent defender in Africa here.

He is even quite simply one of the best African defenders.

It's not bad at all our team in selection!

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