At the end of patience, there is heaven. This African proverb, the Ivorian footballer Roger Assalé, who arrived this year at Dijon Football Côte-d’Or (Dijon FCO), seems to have applied it to his career management. Never rushing, therefore, but a progression built step by step with a precise horizon: to arrive in Europe in good conditions. And this is what is happening to the player bought 4 million euros. A significant sum for a club like Dijon, which has one of the most modest budgets in Ligue 1 (50 million euros) and makes an original bet by betting on a 26-year-old player recruited in the Swiss league, who does not not one of the best in Europe.
Roger Assalé has behind him a first part of his career without ever rushing. After a first professional contract signed at the age of 19 with the Société Omnisports de l’Armée (SOA, in Yamoussoukro), he shines in Séwé Sport de San Pedro, with two titles of champion of Côte d’Ivoire in 2013 and 2014 and a selection in the final of the African Football Confederation Cup (CAF) in 2014; but he does not want to convert these first feats of arms straight away into a plane ticket to Europe. At that time, AJ Auxerre (France) nevertheless followed closely the one who, from 2013, naturally found his place in the international selection of his country.
Ravens and Elephants
Coming from the Abidjan middle class, with parents working in health and education, the boy was programmed more for studies than for sports. “But my family quickly understood that I wanted to become a professional and from there they supported me in my project “, explains the attacker. Eugène Diomandé, the president of Sewé Sport, sees in him a young person who “Has always been serious, works hard and is eager to learn”. It’s in his eyes “Which enabled him to quickly become one of the executives of the team “.
In 2014, it was finally Moïse Katumbi, the millionaire president of TP Mazembe, who won the bet by convincing the young man to join the club in Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With him, Katumbi brought in two of his teammates from San Pedro, goalkeeper Sylvain Gbohouo and midfielder Christian Koffi. A trio that arrives against a global check of 250,000 euros and that the club pampers, installing them together in a large house to alleviate homesickness. Pamphile Mihayo, assistant coach of the Ravens, remembers Roger Assalé’s dedication and seriousness as much as his natural contact with his teammates: “Arrived discreetly, he took the time to find his bearings and was quickly accepted. “
But in the mind of the young man, TP Mazembe is only a step on the road to the North, because the Europeans closely scrutinize the Congolese club. And made him the bet that there would necessarily be the opportunity to “Highlight before joining Europe », He confides today. In fact, Roger Assalé won many titles in the DRC, including the CAF Champions League in 2015; year in which he also won, with the Ivorian Elephants, the African Cup of Nations (CAN). Despite the comfortable salary offered to him by Moïse Katumbi, he therefore clings to his dream of joining a European club … even if it is at his own pace: usually, Sub-Saharans who have not crossed the Mediterranean to the dawn of their twenties opt instead for Asia.
A passage in Spain
His plan worked when in February 2017, he was loaned to Young Boys Bern, one of the best Swiss clubs. Roger Assalé is 23 years old, he scores in his first match. His few goals, the explosive duo he formed with Frenchman Guillaume Hoarau and his spectacular style quickly convinced the Bernese leaders to buy him. Five months later, it’s done. A finely matured strategy validated by Gérard Castella, a former player of the club now in charge of training. “His choice of career is interesting and well thought out, he believes. After TP Mazembe, he opted for an intermediate European championship which knows how to highlight the players. ” According to him, the bet worked because Roger Assalé knew “Quickly acclimatize to European football and the change of lifestyle”.
In Bern, where he spends part of his free time with African players or of African origin, the young man gradually gets used to the climate – which he finds all the same harsh -, to a football “More rigorous “ and a new culture. His rudimentary practice of German did not prevent him from considering this Swiss experience as “Very beneficial, especially with the titles won and participation in the Champions League “. Loaned to Leganés, Spain, last January, the Ivorian imagined himself continuing his career in another European Top 5 championship. It could have been Montpellier, as we believed a year ago, but it was ultimately Dijon which was able to convince him.
