Mwepu Ilunga does not really need reminding of the moment he entered World Cup infamy in 1974. Unfortunately for the 65-year-old, who now works as a coach for the DR Congo team preparing to play in the Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, players can be especially cruel sometimes.
“Occasionally, when we get a free-kick in training, someone will run up and kick the ball away and everyone just starts laughing,” says the DRC and Peterborough defender Gabriel Zakuani.
He is referring, of course, to the match between the country then known as Zaire and Brazil, when Ilunga sprang out of the defensive wall at a free-kick and booted the ball down the pitch. Universally ridiculed ever since, his apparent rush of blood was actually intended as a protest against the decision of President Joseph Mobutu’s government not to pay the players their bonuses as promised.
Zaire left West Germany with no points having conceded 14 goals in their three matches, an inglorious end to a golden period that saw them crowned African champions in 1968 and 1974. “I didn’t know much about the history until recently but it’s something I’ve looked into a lot,” admits Zakuani, who was born in Kinshasa but came through Leyton Orient’s youth system after moving to London as a child.
“The team that became the first sub-Saharan country to reach the World Cup is very famous in DRC, even if most people only remember them for that free-kick. We’re just hoping that one day we can emulate them and make it to a World Cup as well.”
After years in the wilderness, there are signs the next generation could do just that. Years of mass migration due to the ongoing civil war has meant Leopards supporters have grown used to seeing players with Congolese heritage turning out for European nations, and in particular for their former colonial master, Belgium.
Yet while Vincent Kompany, Romelu Lukaku and the rest would obviously be welcome additions, the squad now features several players who grew up many miles from their ancestral homeland alongside a core group who play for the domestic sides Vita Club and TP Mazembe.
“The first time I went back was the strangest because I hadn’t been for a long time,” Zakuani remembers. “I didn’t really realise how lucky I had been to grow up in the UK until then because you see the poverty there is throughout the country. As soon as you get out of the plane you see lots of beggars everywhere and it’s obvious the people are struggling to survive. But the potential is scary. A lot of Congolese people have dual nationality so it can be difficult to persuade them to play for their mother country because they might get better opportunities playing for a European team. We still have some top players who are waiting to show what they can do on the big stage.”
The best of those include the Dynamo Kiev striker Dieumerci Mbokani, recently returned from a long-term injury and previously a target for several Premier League clubs, the Anderlecht defender Chancel Mbemba – tipped as the next Kompany in Belgium – and the West Bromwich Albion midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu. The Leopards’ big hope, though, may be the Crystal Palace forward Yannick Bolasie, who is now fully committed to his parents’ homeland after much persuasion from Zakuani.
“I practically had to tie him down to get him on the plane in the end. We’ve been close for years and when he was picked for the last Afcon, I was on the phone to him all the time trying to persuade him to come. At the time he was just becoming a regular in the Palace team and they were going for promotion so it was understandable that he decided to wait. It’s probably been the best decision he’s ever made because now he is really established as a Premier League player.
“For a while I think he was pretty half-hearted about it but once he had trained with us and seen how excited the whole nation gets, I think that made the difference. He’s grown into the team and not really looked back.”
Two goals from Bolasie in the final qualifying match, against Sierra Leone, meant DRC eventually made it to Equatorial Guinea as the best third-placed team, after Egypt’s defeat to Tunisia.
“We were on the plane heading back to Brussels and Mulumbu went up to the front to ask them to phone down and find out the score,” says Zakuani. “He came back down the plane screaming that we had done it so we ordered some champagne to celebrate.”
Drawn with Zambia, Tunisia and Cape Verde in group B, there is certainly plenty of optimism among the coaching staff that they can go deep into the competition. “I’ve been told to pack until 9 February, which is the day after the final,” Zakuani chuckles. “The way we managed to qualify was very dramatic so we’re going into the tournament feeling very buoyant. I think we’re good enough to win the group because there is no one that stands out as dominant. We’ll be disappointed if we can’t make the quarter-finals at least.”
