The 48-year-old coach wants to instill a winning mentality to his side. This is what he shared with CAFOnline from his team’s training base in Yamoussoukro ahead of their opening Group C match against five-time champions, Cameroon on Monday, 15 January.

“We have great ambition for this competition. We formed a team two years ago and I will be participating in my second time AFCON. We know each other well, and I just hope we start the competition well. We have done good preparations, especially on a physical level to be ready for the competition and we will continue to work in order to be ready to compete.

The former player who played for several French Ligue 1 clubs also underlined the importance of a positive start in a competition such as the TotalEnergies AFCON

"We have a strong group, with great teams so we must start the competition well to secure a chance of qualifying for the next round” he said.

On his personal ambition for the tournament, Diawara said he is aiming for nothing less than winning matches but was wary of the fact that the team has youngsters who need to be groomed for the future.

“My personal ambition is to win. When we start a job we have to do it well. We have a young team and we are in a group that has previous champions. We hope to be at the level and give everything on the pitch. I want to urge our fans to encourage us and believe in us”, concluded the former Arsenal FC player.