2026 FIFA World Cup · CAF (Africa)Ivory Coast National Football Team
Les Éléphants (The Elephants)
Group E
Group standings update live during the tournament. All four teams play three group fixtures. Top two and the four best third-placed sides progress to the round of 32.
Group-stage fixtures
26-man squad
Current squad as registered with FIFA. Tap any player with the “Profile” chip to open their full PicksIQ stat page, including season form at their club.
Goalkeepers
Defenders
Midfielders
Attackers
How Ivory Coast qualified
Ivory Coast won CAF Group F with 17 points from eight matches (five wins, two draws, one defeat), beating Burundi, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Kenya and Seychelles across the campaign and scoring 18 goals while conceding three. The group was, by African football standards, comfortably navigable — and Faé's side used the campaign to lock in the same 4-3-3 structure that won the 2023 AFCON. The defining results were a 4-0 home win over Burundi at the Stade Houphouët-Boigny in November 2024, a 3-0 away win in Banjul against The Gambia in March 2025, and a 1-0 win over The Gambia at home in September 2025 that mathematically clinched group top spot. The single defeat was a 1-0 reversal away in Burundi in June 2025 that was widely attributed to squad rotation — Ivory Coast scored in 23 of their 30 first-half performances over the cycle and conceded fewer than one goal per match on average. Ivory Coast arrive at the 2026 tournament with the squad depth, recent tournament-winning experience, and tactical structure that suggests a deep run is realistic. Group E with Germany, Ecuador and Curaçao offers a draw they should expect to escape — and a round-of-16 path that, depending on the second-place finisher in the group, may not require facing a top-tier seed before the quarter-finals.
Direct qualification with one match remaining — best defensive record of any CAF group winner.
Final group standings
| # | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ivory Coast Qualification for 2026 FIFA World Cup | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 3 | 17 |
| 2 | Gabon Advance to CAF play-offs | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 14 |
| 3 | Burundi | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 4 | The Gambia | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 5 | Kenya | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 7 |
| 6 | Seychelles | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 22 | 0 |
Source: FIFA, CAF
A short history
Ivory Coast's footballing identity is shaped by the Drogba-Touré-Kalou-Eboué golden generation of the mid-2000s and the much-discussed underachievement of that generation at three consecutive World Cups. Les Éléphants qualified for 2006, 2010 and 2014 — drawn into the so-called Group of Death each time, eliminated in the group stage each time — and then missed the 2018 and 2022 tournaments before returning in 2026 as the reigning AFCON champions. The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, hosted at home in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro across January and February 2024, produced the most unlikely African title in modern history. Ivory Coast were eliminated from the group stage on points, sneaked through as the best third-placed team, sacked head coach Jean-Louis Gasset, and won the tournament under interim coach Emerse Faé with consecutive knockout-round wins over Senegal, Mali, DR Congo and Nigeria in the final. Faé became the first head coach in AFCON history to win the tournament after taking over mid-tournament. Faé is still in the dugout for the 2026 cycle. Franck Kessié is captain. Goalkeeper Yahia Fofana, defender Wilfried Singo (Galatasaray), midfielders Ibrahim Sangaré (Nottingham Forest), Seko Fofana (Al-Nassr) and Jérémie Boga, and the forward partnership of Sébastien Haller (Borussia Dortmund returning after his testicular cancer recovery) and Simon Adingra (Sunderland) form a deep squad. Ivory Coast enter the World Cup as one of three or four credible African contenders.
Three games that defined the side
The 2-1 AFCON final win over Nigeria at the Stade Alassane Ouattara in Ebimpé on 11 February 2024 — Sébastien Haller's 81st-minute winner from inside the box — was the moment Ivory Coast finally claimed the major African title their golden generation never managed. The match capped a tournament arc that had no precedent in international football: eliminated in the group stage, head coach sacked, scraped through as best third-placed team, then won every knockout-round match they played including a quarter-final over Mali in extra time after being down to 10 men for 90 minutes. Ivory Coast's 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa produced the most romantic group-stage exit any African side has ever recorded. Drawn alongside Brazil, Portugal and North Korea in the Group of Death, Drogba's side beat North Korea 3-0, drew with Portugal 0-0 and lost 3-1 to Brazil — finishing third on goal difference behind Brazil and Portugal. Drogba played the entire tournament with a fractured forearm in a custom-built protective cast; the image of the cast became one of the iconic photographs of the tournament. Didier Drogba's three years as the country's most prominent international footballer (2005-2010) coincided with the Ivorian civil war, and Drogba's televised speech kneeling on a national broadcast pleading for peace immediately after Ivory Coast's 2005 World Cup qualifying win is widely credited with helping to end the conflict. The speech is now studied in West African political-history syllabi as a singular moment of athletic-political consequence.
Tournament by tournament
| Year | Result | P | W-D-L | GF-GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Group stage Germany | 3 | 1-0-2 | 5-6 |
| 2010 | Group stage South Africa | 3 | 1-1-1 | 4-3 |
| 2014 | Group stage Brazil | 3 | 1-1-1 | 4-5 |
Goals at the finals
| Player | Goals | Tournaments |
|---|---|---|
| Didier Drogba | 3 | 2006, 2010, 2014 |
| Wilfried Bony | 1 | 2014 |
| Aruna Dindane | 2 | 2006 |
| Yaya Touré | 1 | 2010 |