Retired Star Coly: Senegal Still Has to Improve

Retired Senegal defender Ferdinand Coly insists there is no room for the current Teranga Lions to be complacent and the team must be seen to be improving technically.

The 44-year-old voiced delight over the side’s 2-1 win over Poland but reckons the need for bits and pieces to be added each time with Japan now being gaffer Aliou Cisse charges’ next adversaries.

“There had been good things so far, but I think this performance (against Poland) is the most significant of this team. There are still things to improve, especially technically. This team still has room for improvement,” the erstwhile Lens and Parma full-back tells Senegalese publication Galsen.

“I think this is the type of benefit that can allow a group to cross a cause. Now, we will have to rest well and prepare to face Japan on Sunday. The Japanese beat Colombia (2-1), which is something. They are lively, technical and I think they will avoid coming at the players physically,” he elucidates.

The Dakar-born now, a farmer in his home town, was key part of the Senegalese team that lost to Cameroon on penalties and got booted out of the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup by Turkey.

Known for his trademark dreadlocks folded in a ponytail during his heydays, Coley began his career with Libourne before joining Poitiers and later Chatearoux where he impressed enough to earn a move to RC Lens prior to switching to Birmingham City on loan.

Capped 48 times for his country, moves to Perugia and Parma followed next for the defender before he hung up his boots in 2008.