"Some people even rip off their shirts, and say they don't recognise the team anymore. But when the next match comes, we forget everything. The same people who tore their shirts buy new shirts and go back to support the same Elephants again."
That's not a quirk of Ivorian football culture. That is Ivorian football culture — and they've given it a name. Supporter maso. Masochistic supporter. Wear it with pride.
Ivory Coast return to the World Cup stage for the first time since 2014, and the fans who'll be watching from Abidjan's bars and living rooms are carrying that identity into a tournament they believe — genuinely believe — could end with a run to the final.
Where the noise comes from
The Elephants' fanbase draws from a country of 32 million people, more than 60 ethnic groups and over 70 indigenous languages. In the stands, that diversity collapses into something unified: Nouchi, the Abidjan street slang born in the late 1970s, originally a gang dialect to dodge police, now a badge of national identity. "It brings solidarity and shows our Ivorian identity," says supporter Wise Bogny.
Music does the rest. Zouglou — upbeat, percussion-driven, lyrics about everyday life — is the soundtrack to every Elephants match. During AFCON 2023, Tam Sir's Coup de Marteau was inescapable. "You would hear it everywhere, in bars and restaurants," recalls fan Silue Kolo. You could practically build a playlist around Ivory Coast's tournament history.
"When things go badly, we joke about it," Kolo adds. "Whatever happens, even bad things, we turn it into humour." He points to the AFCON 2023 celebrations — players making gestures, joking on the pitch mid-triumph. That wasn't indiscipline. That was identity.
What this squad can actually do
The gap between fan enthusiasm and tournament reality has been stark for years. Three World Cup appearances (2006, 2010, 2014), one win per tournament, zero knockout rounds. In 2006 and 2010 they drew genuinely punishing groups featuring Argentina, the Netherlands and Portugal — brutal luck. This time, Group E offers Ecuador, Curacao and Germany. Two of those are winnable games on paper, and the expanded 48-team format means eight third-placed sides advance too. The route out of the group stage has never been clearer.
The squad justifies the optimism. Emerse Fae — the manager who took over mid-tournament when AFCON 2023 looked gone and somehow won it — brings continuity. Amad Diallo, Simon Adingra, Franck Kessie and Nicolas Pepe give them genuine quality in the final third. And 19-year-old RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande is the name generating real excitement right now.
March friendlies sharpened that case: a 4-0 dismantling of South Korea and a 1-0 win over Scotland, both World Cup-bound nations, in England. That's not a fluke result. It's a statement of intent.
The $15,000 US visa bond requirement will keep most Ivorian fans at home — some may make it to the Toronto fixture against Germany, where the Canadian border is more accessible. But the supporter maso spirit doesn't require a passport.
"I am convinced we will go very far in this competition, maybe even to the final," says fan Saphira Silue. Kolo is slightly more measured — quarter-finals, semi-finals, why not? — but the direction of travel is the same.
Three World Cups. No knockout football. The shirts get ripped. New shirts get bought. They come back. That's the deal.
