International: Congo puts pressure on Kembo

Pre-called in September by the Democratic Republic of Congo, the country where he was born – and the country for which his father Jean played, under the name of Zaïre – Jirès Kembo has finally declined the invitation of national coach Claude Le Roy.

But the Congolese federation is not discouraged, since it still puts pressure on players with dual nationality in order to try and convince them to defend the Congolese colours. Some players, such as Gaël Kakuta, expressed their intention to play with France publicly, other ones didn’t express their choice in public.
For these players, the Fecofa (Congolese federation of football association) organized an information meeting last Monday in Paris, in order to answer all the questions of undecided players. Jirès Kembo was invited, such as former Rennais Arnold Mvuemba and several other players well known in France, such as Lynel Kitambala (Saint-Étienne), Granddi Ngoyi (Nantes), Larrys Mabiala (Nice) or Trippy Makonda (Brest).

The players who will accept to play with Congo might participate with the « Leopards » of Congo to the first qualification round for the 2014 World Cup , which starts mid-November. The Congolese team will try to qualify for the next round during a double confrontation against the modest team of Swaziland.