From Purley to a World Cup playoff: how the DRC scour Europe for players

Gabriel Zakuani played over 400 EFL games and captained the Democratic Republic of the Congo – now he helps his country recruit talent like Aaron Wan-Bissaka

A Costa Coffee in Purley was the unlikely venue for Gabriel Zakuani’s meeting in 2022 with Sébastien Desabre, the newly appointed manager of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but they were there on a secret mission. Aaron Wan-Bissaka was at Manchester Unitedand holding out for an England call-up after representing the under-21s. But Zakuani, who was raised in London but born in the Congolese capital Kinshasa and played for DRC at three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, had different plans.

“The manager contacted me out of the blue and he was in London,” the former Peterborough defender says. “It was a very random trip – he just wanted to watch players that potentially could play for Congo. We met at Costa and less than an hour into the conversation I had rung up Aaron’s family and we were at Aaron’s house. We were having a conversation with his mum and dad about potentially getting him to change his nationality. It snowballed from there.”