Guinea Coach No-Shows Bafana Presser, Then Mysteriously Appears at Training — Is It Mind Games?
The psychological warfare has already started — and it started on the eve of the match.
Guinea coach Paulo Duarte skipped Friday’s mandatory press conference ahead of Saturday’s crucial 2027 AFCON qualifier against Bafana Bafana, claiming he was too sick to attend.
Convenient timing, then, that he showed up perfectly healthy at the team’s final training session just hours later — leading proceedings on the pitch like nothing was wrong at all.
Guinea’s own Team Liaison Officer wasn’t buying the illness story either. Jesse Kalalu didn’t hold back when pressed on Duarte’s absence.
“So there’s no valid reason for the head coach not being here. He just didn’t want to come and instead wanted to focus his attention on the pitch,” Kalalu admitted.
“I tried to convince him to come to the press conference but he didn’t want to be here.”
Instead, Duarte sent his third assistant coach, Mamadouba Sylla, to face the media — a move that backfired spectacularly, with journalists largely ignoring him and directing their questions straight to the players instead.
The mind games come at a pressure-cooker moment for Duarte, who’s fighting to get Guinea back to AFCON after missing out on last year’s tournament in Morocco. His side haven’t won in four matches, and there’s clearly unrest bubbling beneath the surface.
Not everyone in the camp agrees pressure is behind the vanishing act, though. Defensive midfielder Mory Konate insisted it was simply a tactical choice.
“The coach decided against being here, not because he is facing any pressure, we don’t think he is,” Konate said.
“The team is very motivated and they really want to impress and get a result against Bafana Bafana on Saturday.”
Sick, strategic, or spooked — whatever the real reason, Duarte’s disappearing act has already added an extra layer of drama to a qualifier that didn’t need any help feeling like a must-win.
