Ismael Kone’s path began in Africa and flourished in Canada

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The supporters of Les Elephants from Ivory Coast were a small but vocal minority mostly scattered in the south end of Toronto Stadium on Saturday, dwarfed by supporters of Germany, the highest-ranked team to visit Canada so far in this FIFA World Cup.

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Meanwhile, one of the West African nation’s brightest young talents — by birth, anyway — has become a fan favourite elsewhere.

Ismael Kone, born in Abidjan, is the darling of the Canadian team now, an emotional flashpoint following the savage injury sustained Thursday in Vancouver on that brutal second-half tackle from a Qatari defender.

That he entered this home World Cup as a key figure on Jesse Marsch’s team is a testament to Kone’s talent, first, but also Canada’s recognition and nurturing of it.

Born in the African nation that faced powerhouse Germany in a spirited battle on Saturday, Kone maintained an attachment to his homeland, notably as a super fan of the legendary Les Elephant, Didier Drogba.

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When it came to his soccer future, though, it was always going to be Canada.

Kone discovered his love for the game and honed his skills in Montreal and fortuitously for all involved found himself on the radar of Canada Soccer early in his teenaged years. He quickly zoomed up the pecking order amongst the country’s burgeoning young talent and was developed to be a star of the future.

That former Canadian men’s coach, John Herdman, spotted the talent and hustled him into the national program when Kone was barely out of his teens helped ensure that the talented midfielder would never head to the land of his birth for an international career.

Kone was eligible and no doubt the Ivorians would have pursued him had Herdman not secured and promoted Kone for qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

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It’s a familiar story for a portion of the Canadian roster. Captain Alphonso Davies was born in Ghana but raised in Edmonton where he flourished as a youngster. Tani Oluwaseyi came to Mississauga from Nigeria at age 10 and become a phenom here.

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It’s one thing to learn and play the game here. It’s quite another to have an opportunity to play internationally. That’s a credit, then to the trajectory of the men’s national program, that entered this tournament ranked 28th in the world by FIFA.

If it was 2014 when Canada was ranked a lowly 122nd in the world, Kone could have ended up on a different path to Toronto Stadium. Soccer is in a much better place here than it’s ever been, however, as the pipeline that made Kone such an important piece has proven.

Why did Kone choose Canada?

He learned to play the game in Montreal, a city that became important to Kone and his mother, Suzanne Diomande. She arrived in Canada with her seven-year-old son 16 years ago to begin a new life, one that would see young Ismael flourish as a soccer-playing prodigy.

He had excellent coaching along the way, was on a strong development path, making his pro debut with CF Montreal in 2022. More significantly in the context of the national team, Canada Soccer was all over it.

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“The teammates, the group, the coach I had (while in Montreal) all helped me so much,” Kone said in 2022 as he was making his World Cup debut. “I’m grateful for that team and I’ll say it until the end of my career.”

Kone appeared in all three of Canada’s World Cup matches in 2022 and continued his fast-track to success form there. Marsch hailed him as a huge key to the team’s success for this year’s tournament and as we saw by their reaction following the horrific injury, the 24-year-old is beloved by his teammates.

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What’s the latest on Kone?

The recuperating midfielder lit up social media with his smile on Saturday when he was seen arriving at the team’s hotel in Vancouver, released from the hospital after having surgery to repair his broken leg.

Kone’s teammates gathered round the official FIFA vehicle that dropped him off, chanting his first name as he exited the vehicle on crutches.

Whatever time he’s able to spend around the team will be embraced and it’s clear that he is an inspiration for Marsch’s squad, a rallying point even in his absence. How Canada replaces him on the pitch will be a major story heading into the team’s third and final Group B contest on Tuesday, however.

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Different path for another Ivorian star

Fans of Les Elephants are wild about 19-year-old Yan Diomande, who was on the Toronto Stadium pitch on Saturday and is a rising star in both the German Bundesliga and with the national team.

He turned heads in his World Cup debut against Ecuador last week, a 1-0 win for Ivory Coast in which he was named man of the match, and was one of the most-anticipated players among the fans on hand in Toronto on Saturday.

Diomande (who shares the same last name as Kone’s mother, a common surname in the country) had a vastly different experience in North America than his Canadian counterpart.

Diomande came to the U.S. at age 15 but never embraced life in Florida the way Kone was able to in Montreal, where his French background helped the acclimation to a new country.

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