Nicolas Pepe is back in the Ivory Coast squad — not because he forced his way back in, but because a teenager got injured. That's the honest version of this story, and it matters for how you read what comes next.
The 30-year-old was left out of the original group for friendlies against South Korea (March 29, Milton Keynes) and Scotland (March 31, Liverpool). Yann Diomande's injury opened the door. Pepe walked through it.
A complicated return
This isn't a straightforward redemption arc. Pepe was also absent from the Africa Cup of Nations squad — the tournament held on home soil, where Ivory Coast defended their title and went out at the quarter-final stage. That's a significant omission to absorb. You don't leave your 50-cap striker out of a home AFCON without some friction in the background.
That friction spilled into public view when Pepe posted a YouTube video making comments about Morocco's AFCON record. The fallout was swift — he apologised, but also accused the Ivorian federation of failing to back him when racial abuse came his way online. Relations, to put it mildly, have been strained.
On the pitch, he's been functional rather than spectacular at Villarreal — five LaLiga goals this season. Not the output that demands a recall on merit alone.
What this means for the World Cup picture
Ivory Coast face Ecuador, Germany and Curacao in Group E. These two friendlies are effectively auditions, and Pepe knows it. At 30, with his international future murky and his club form modest, he needs these minutes to remind the coaching staff he's still a genuine option — not just a gap-filler.
Whether the federation-player relationship has actually repaired itself, or whether this is purely a squad numbers exercise, will become clearer once the camp opens. His last cap came in October. The gap since then has been anything but quiet.
