IIt took Gabriel Zakuani less than five seconds to turn down an offer to commentate on the World Cup round of 16 clash between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and England. The former Peterborough and Leyton Orient defender and Leopards captain appeared regularly on BBC Radio 5 Live during the tournament but simply couldn’t face the prospect of working during the biggest match in their history.
“I was going to play against England but I just said, ‘There’s too much emotion in it. I can’t do this,” he says.
“I played in the Colombia vs DR Congo match and I felt like I was getting too attached. So I had to say that I don’t want to play in any Congolese games anymore.”
Instead, Zakuani, who as a consultant to the country’s federation played a huge role in the formation of Sébastien Desabre’s team from the Congolese diaspora across Europe, will be watching the game with a large local community on Tottenham’s West Green Road filled with enormous pride. The 40-year-old was with the team at pre-tournament training camps in Belgium and Spain before attending their opening game against Portugal in Houston. A 1-1 draw in DRC’s first World Cup game since they played for Zaire in 1974 – when they were the first sub-Saharan African nation to reach the final – showed they belonged at this level.
The belief has only grown since then after he returned from scoring against Uzbekistan and set up a meeting with Thomas Tuchel’s side. Zakuani believes they can take inspiration from Ghana’s performance against England in the group stage.
Noah Sadiki (right) has had a superb season at Sunderland and is on the radar of other Premier League clubs. Photograph: Jacob Kupferman/AP
“There are holes in England. I think they’re glaring,” he says. “When you sit back against England, they struggle to get you open. I don’t think they’ve picked players who can do that on a regular basis. That’s what we’ll use. If you stop Jude Bellingham, I think you’ve stopped most of England. We’re very athletic and very good defensively. And I think we’ve got a little bit more than Ghana going forward.”
“So I’d say if we can hold them off for as long as possible we’ll have chances. And we’ll just have to be smart when we get those chances. That’s how I see us beating England.”
There will be plenty of familiar faces on both sides, with Newcastle’s Yoan Wissa, Sunderland’s Noah Sadiki and Aaron Wan-Bissaka expected to start. Axel Tuanzebe even attended the same school – Ashton on Mersey, in Greater Manchester – as Marcus Rashford during their time in the Manchester United youth team. The Burnley defender has had an outstanding tournament so far.
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Gabriel Zakuani was born in Kinshasa but grew up in east London before deciding to play for the DRC internationally. Photograph: Athena Pictures/Getty Images
Only six players on the team were born in the DRC, including Fiston Mayele, who scored against Uzbekistan and left the domestic league in 2021 to play in Tanzania before moving to Egypt. Zakuani can take much of the credit for getting Wissa, Tuanzebe and Sadiqi, who are being tracked by Chelsea and United after an outstanding first season in the Premier League, to pledge allegiance to Leopards. “I was assistant coach of the under-20 team for a few years and he (Sadiqi) was in that team. And I immediately WhatsApped the manager (of the senior team) and said: this player shouldn’t be here, he should be with you,” Zakuani says of the Belgian-born midfielder.
“I had a long conversation with Sadiqi and I immediately realized that he was very passionate about playing for Congo. He is so driven that he believed that he should have been in the Belgian national team as a teenager. But he wanted to switch to Congo and he just felt something was pulling him towards Congo.”
The trend is becoming increasingly common, with young stars such as Morocco’s Ayoub Bouaddi and Senegal’s Ibrahim Mbaye deciding to turn their backs on France ahead of the tournament. Wan-Bissaka needed some coaxing, even after Zakuani turned up at his parents’ home in Purley with Desabre after hatching the plan at the Costa Coffee around the corner. But the irony of Tuchel’s struggles at right-back during the World Cup has not gone unnoticed, given the 28-year-old has been capped three times by England Under-21s.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka from DR Congo beat Rafael Leana from Portugal with a score of 1:1 in the group stage. Photograph: Pedro Nunez/Reuters
“Aaron had a fantastic tournament,” Zakuani said. “I think he was unlucky not to get into the England squad, especially the year before when he was West Ham’s player of the year. When he didn’t get the England call-up, that’s when he said, ‘No, that’s enough now’. He was at the age where he needed to play international football.”
After finishing one point behind Senegal in their qualifying group, knocking out African heavyweights Cameroon and Nigeria in the knockout stages and then beating Jamaica in the intercontinental final, the DRC has had a tough road at this World Cup. But Zakuani hopes the battle-hardened team can deliver a seismic blow.
“That path has probably served us well in terms of getting through the playoffs and getting used to playing under pressure all the time. The unity is there for everyone to see,” he says.
“In this dressing room they believe they can get a result. I believe there could be a scalp here. I’m not just saying that because I’m on the Congolese side. I think it will be a tougher match than everyone thinks.”