{"id":574820,"date":"2026-03-30T19:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574820\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:58:09","slug":"from-purley-to-a-world-cup-playoff-how-the-drc-scour-europe-for-players-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/574820\/","title":{"rendered":"From Purley to a World Cup playoff: how the DRC scour Europe for players | Democratic Republic of the Congo football team"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Costa Coffee in Purley was the unlikely venue for Gabriel Zakuani\u2019s meeting in 2022 with S\u00e9bastien Desabre, the newly appointed manager of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but they were there on a secret mission. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was at Manchester Unitedand holding out for an England call-up after representing the under-21s. But Zakuani, who was raised in London but born in the Congolese capital Kinshasa and played for the DRC at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, had different plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe manager contacted me out of the blue and he was in London,\u201d the former Peterborough defender says. \u201cIt was a very random trip \u2013 he just wanted to watch players that potentially could play for Congo. We met at Costa and less than an hour into the conversation I had rung up Aaron\u2019s family and we were at Aaron\u2019s house. We were having a conversation with his mum and dad about potentially getting him to change his nationality. It snowballed from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wan-Bissaka joined West Ham in 2024 and had been tipped for a call-up from Thomas Tuchel in March 2025. When that didn\u2019t come, Zakuani seized his moment.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Zakuani played at three Africa Cup of Nations for the Democratic Republic of the Congo \u2013 now a number of players he helped spot and recruit could take the DRC to their first World Cup for over half a century. Photograph: Athena Pictures\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was the right sign to strike,\u201d he says. \u201cWe put our offer on the table. We had all his paperwork ready to sign and he agreed. I think that was his last opportunity maybe to play for England. He knew that we really wanted him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wan-Bissaka surely has no regrets after switching allegiances in August last year. He joined Burnley\u2019s Axel Tuanzebe \u2013 born in the DRC but raised in England just like Zakuani who recruited him in his role as a consultant for the country\u2019s federation \u2013 in the Leopards team that went to the Afcon in Morocco and on Tuesday face a playoff in Mexico to qualify for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The DRC came through the African playoffs in November by beating Cameroon and Nigeria, and if they beat Jamaica in Guadalajara they will play at the World Cup for the first time since their historic 1974 appearance as the first sub-Saharan Africa team to qualify for a finals, when they were known as Zaire.<\/p>\n

Axel Tuanzebe grew up in Rochdale, and played for England right up to under-21 level, but now plays for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the country of his birth. Photograph: Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Zakuani\u2019s role as a talent spotter began when he was playing, after months of attempting to persuade Yannick Bolasie to turn out for the DRC finally came to fruition. Zakuani joked at the time<\/a> that he \u201cpractically had to tie him down to get him on the plane in the end\u201d and things have changed as results have steadily improved over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become a lot easier to attract the players and the way we\u2019re performing I think is the first thing, because that\u2019s the first thing players look at if it\u2019s an opportunity for them to potentially play at a World Cup,\u201d he says. \u201cI think we\u2019ve become sort of bankers in Afcon as well. Afcon used to be a hard thing for the DRC to qualify for, but now it seems a bit more straightforward, the sort of quality we\u2019ve got, which has changed the views of a lot of players who were in two minds about joining.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zakuani, who speaks eight languages, is an assistant coach for the DRC\u2019s under-20s and spends the rest of his time scouring European leagues for players with Congolese heritage.<\/p>\n

21 of the DRC\u2019s 26-strong 2025 Africa Cup of Nations squad were born in Europe, many of them brought into the national setup in part through the efforts of Gabriel Zakuani, a former national captain turned scout. Photograph: SFSI\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to do a lot of commentating so if I saw someone with a surname that looks Congolese then I would investigate and that\u2019s sort of how it happened at first,\u201d he says. \u201cBut now because I\u2019m working very closely with the national team, there\u2019s got to be a lot more thought put into it and a lot of looking around and I\u2019ll turn up to games and training sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite intense in terms of trying to really track players down there and to have a conversation with them. Being captain of the national team for quite a long time, it helps that transition. I\u2019ve got that connection, that direct link to recommend them straight away. They can go in and get the paperwork sorted just to lock them in for Congo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel Ndala, an England Under-20s forward on loan from Manchester City at Sheffield Wednesday, is firmly in Zakuani\u2019s sights for the future. \u201cWe\u2019re working hard on that one,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Joel Ndala played with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri at an Under-17 World Cup for England \u2013 now he\u2019s on the radar for the DRC senior side thanks to his dual British-Congolese nationality. Photograph: NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

There could be plenty of others who suddenly show more interest should the DRC seal a World Cup spot. \u201cWe have got players in the pipeline,\u201d Zakuani says. \u201cThere\u2019s things that have been in the background happening for about a year now. But because we\u2019ve got to this position in the playoffs, we need to just stick with what we\u2019ve got, what\u2019s worked, and we\u2019ll pursue that if we do get to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emulating the famous 1974 Zaire side has been the inspiration during a qualification campaign in which the DRC finished two points behind Senegal in their group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the manager took charge, that was his goal,\u201d says Zakuani. \u201cThe federation set him a clear instruction to get into the World Cup. We\u2019ve done it the hard way by getting through the playoffs and now we\u2019re believing that we can actually get there. The country believes that we can do it \u2013 we can\u2019t make it 52 years without getting to a World Cup. I think it\u2019s the right time. It\u2019s the right time with the team. We don\u2019t want to miss this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Costa Coffee in Purley was the unlikely venue for Gabriel Zakuani\u2019s meeting in 2022 with S\u00e9bastien Desabre,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-574820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}