Hello everybody and welcome to Soccer 101.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on today's episode, we're taking a look at a story that involves political strife, armed conflict, World Cup qualification, a missed penalty, and the power of one individual to inspire a country.

In this case, that individual is four-time Premier League winner, Didier Dragba. That man has done it all. He's won the Premier League, the F.A. Cup, the Champions League. He played professional soccer in Europe, Asia, and North America. He became the world's first player owner when he moved to Phoenix Rising at the age of 39, still played games and still scored goals. But perhaps the biggest story about Didi A. Dragba is the one that we're going to be

delving into today.

Did he really end a civil war and bring peace to Cote d'Ivois.

Now, normally I'll hold off my conclusions until the end of the episode, but today we're

going to change it up a little bit because I think it's important to give the factual

answer, but then also get into why the

factual answer maybe doesn't truly cover it.

So to repeat, if the question is, did Didier Dragbo really end a civil war and bring peace

to Cote d'Ivoix?

Then the answer is that he mostly did not.

But as you might have guessed, the inclusion of that mostly is very important because he did a lot more than I think is well-known and perhaps even more than the well-known story would tell you.

And as with most things, the answer to our question lies in the gray areas of life.

Here's how author David Goldblatt summed it up in his book, The Age of Football, Soccer

in the 21st Century. Dragba and his Ivory Coast teammates may have played a small role in

encouraging the end of the country's civil war, but they did offer a symbol of diversity and

reconciliation at a time when that wasn't common or easy. And so to reiterate, that's why I say my

answer is mostly that he did not, because I think I had sort of created this reality in my head where he speaks to the nation and says, hey, stop fighting. Lay down your guns. And everybody listens and it's the end of a movie. And that's how a movie ends, but not real life. Real life tends to require a lot more effort, a lot more dedication, and a lot

more willingness to overcome, and Didier Dragba had all those things. So let's get into it and let's

start with the beginning of the journey to make a World Cup. When qualifying for the 2006 World Cup

kicked off, Ivory Coast had never before been to soccer's biggest and most prestigious event.

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