Soccer: Every match I play is for Armand

Didier Zokora rolls up the sleeve of his zip-up top to show his right forearm. Tattooed, in large lettering, is the name 'Armand'. "He was my little brother," Zokora explains. "I called him Armando."

Every weekend Didier and Armando, together with a group of friends, would go to the beach in Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast to relax. "We would go in the sea or just hang out," Zokora says of those long, hot days.

One weekend the Zokora brothers had much to celebrate. Both were promising footballers and had just been offered professional contracts with their country's biggest club, ASEC Abidjan. Again they went to the beach.

"But Armando didn't really know how to swim properly," Zokora remembers. He was caught in the waves and drowned. Armando was just 14.

"That day was the hardest day of my life. I never stop thinking about him," Zokora says. "That's why I have his name on my arm. He was a footballer, too. Now every match I play is for him."

Nine years later and Zokora is playing for Tottenham, the English Premiership club he joined recently for £8.2 million ($23.5m) from St-Etienne after playing so impressively for Ivory Coast in the World Cup. Before kick-offs, he sits in the home dressing-room, rolls back the sleeve of his Spurs shirt and gazes at the tattoo.

"And I will kiss my arm," Zokora says. It is the 25-year-old midfielder's only pre-match ritual.

Driven - it's a much-used term in sport. Every successful sportsman, we are told, is driven. Some, such as Zokora, have something else. It is there in his eyes. "It made me want to do more," he says of his brother's tragic death and how it made him even more desperate to succeed in football. He had to fulfil the dreams of two careers.

"You have to make the most of chances you get in life. I did everything I could to make it happen, because it will never happen for him. As I said, every match I play, I think of him. Every match I play, it makes me stronger." And he is strong. Zokora is built like a boxer and has fought hard to achieve his success. He talks about his love of engagement, which means much more in French than just winning tackles and the physical side of football. It is about getting close to your opponent, meeting them in almost military combat.

Reports of matches in which he plays frequently talk of his power, strength and determined running, often carrying the ball 45, 50m riding challenge after challenge.

It all started on the dusty streets of Abidjan, and his selection for a local football academy. "I went to the academy when I was 13," Zokora says. "I spent six years there - with Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué (both Arsenal), Didier Drogba (Chelsea). It's all I wanted to do. Since I was little, I've only ever thought about football. It's my one vocation. And apart from football, I really don't know what else there is in life. Only football."

Zokora also grew up with another thing. A slogan. Across the academy entrance, the boss had written, "You can only become big if you know how to stay small". Zokora nods when reminded of those words. "It's true. To become big, famous, well known, or a great player, you have to know your roots, stay humble and honour the smallest details."

Zokora speaks passionately about Ivory Coast, the political and military upheavals there, the problems suffered by his countrymen but also about inequality, racism - the chants he has endured in football stadiums - and the need for tolerance. He is Christian, his wife, Mariam, is Muslim.

In sport, his hero is Patrick Vieira. But his true hero is Nelson Mandela. Zokora plans "to contribute to football and youth back home" and is hoping to eventually found his own academy for young footballers.

"At the moment things are calm over there in the Ivory Coast," Zokora says of a country ravaged by civil war. "Life is better, it's going well for my family. For me, it's not that easy because my family are in Abidjan. I often wish I could see them. It would make my life even better. But we all know that I'm here for my football."

Auxerre, Lille and St-Etienne all tried to sign him. Zokora opted for the latter, and his reputation kept growing.

In the World Cup, the Ivorians were drawn in one of the toughest groups - along with Argentina, the Netherlands and Serbia & Montenegro - but they fought hard.

At the World Cup, Zokora was visited by Damien Comolli, Spurs' sporting director to seal the move to White Hart Lane. Indeed it was only once Zokora was signed up that Spurs felt able to sanction Michael Carrick's £18.6m transfer to Manchester United. Not that he has the same qualities as Carrick. Zokora is more of a defensive, explosive player but he also admits that he lacks the England midfielder's passing range and creativity.

It has meant that the manager, Martin Jol, has had to reshape his team and it is taking time to bed down.


Spurs, after narrowly missing out on fourth place last season, have not made a good start. "We have lost quite a few [games] so we need to work hard. Even though it has been a difficult start to the season, we have the team we need to do well. This is a great club."

- INDEPENDENT