CONAKRY (Guinea) - Early this year Guinea's Yacouba Sylla was still running up and down the court at the start of the FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers 2021, but a hip injury has cut his career short. 

The 31-year-old point guard, who helped his country qualify for their first AfroBasket in more than three decades three years ago, has recently been confirmed as the new General Manager of Guinea men's team.

"I JUST HOPE TO BE UP TO THE TASK BECAUSE IT IS OUR DUTY TO GET THERE (QUALIFY FOR THE AFROBASKET) FOR OUR COUNTRY BECAUSE MANY YOUNG ATHLETES LOOK UP TO US, WE CAN NOT LET THEM DOWN."- Yacouba Sylla

In his new position, Sylla will try to revive Guinea's chances of returning to Africa's flagship basketball tournament for the second time in a row, even though they rank bottom of Group C with a 0-3 record.

The FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers are due to resume before the end of the year, and to make Sylla's ambition a reality, Guinea will need to finish in the top three places of their group, which include leaders Cote d'Ivoire (3-0), Cameroon (2-1) and Equatorial Guinea (1-2).

"We are currently trying to motivate the players to come back and play for us, but more importantly, we are looking to find solutions to qualify to the AfroBasket," Sylla revealed to FIBA.basketball.

He continued:  "We have already identified where we failed [in the First Round of the Qualifiers], but our primary goal is to fill in the gaps in the team in order to be able to win matches in the second window of the Qualifiers."

Guinea finished last in the FIBA Basketball World Cup African Qualifiers 2019 with a 0-6 mark

 The 16-nation FIBA AfroBasket 2021 will take place in Kigali, Rwanda, and Sylla reiterates that they don't contemplate to miss the chance of competing against the Africa basketball royalty. 

"It is very important for us to return to the AfroBasket, as it will reaffirm the efforts made by the federation whether it is among young people, girls, everybody, that we deserve to be part of the best African nations," he said.

Realistically speaking, Sylla admits that they face an uphill task to qualify to the Kigali showdown.

"Of course we lost three games but nothing is lost just yet. We have missed some key players. Apart from the game against Cameroon we lost by small margins against Cote d'Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea. Our main goal is to finish in the first three places of the group, and qualify for the Final Round. We are going to make the necessary adjustments to win games in November."

 As for the his decision to quit the national team, Sylla explained that he was battling a hip injury for the past two years: "I have been through a number of different treatments, and I will have prosthesis implanted in November. 

"All of a sudden I am the General Manager of the national team. It's a way of helping my country on a different capacity," he reflected.

Yacouba Sylla (Guinea)

"My goal as the General Manager of the national team is to supervise young athletes and continue to work with them for a better future.

"My appointment was for me a chance to be able to continue the work off the court because I can no longer be on the basketball court. Other players respect and trust me. I just hope to be up to the task because it is our duty to get there for our country because many young athletes look up to us. We can not let them down."

FIBA