The Elephants’ previous coach, Vahid Halilhodzic, was sacked after the much-fancied Ivorians were knocked out of the recent African Cup of Nations at the quarter final stage.
They had been many peoples’ favourites for that championship, with a squad boasting the City skipper, his brother Yaya, Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou, and they face a tough task to get into the knock-out stages of the forthcoming World Cup.
The former City and England boss will have to lock horns with Brazil and Portugal as he did in 2002 and 2006, as well as North Korea, in Group G but Kolo thinks that his country has the man for the job.
Kolo told mcfc.co.uk: “I’m very excited about it. I’ve spoken to a few people at the club who remember him from his time here and I’ve heard lots of good things about him.
He is clearly a top manager, and he did well with England in in his time at City. I’ve never met him, but I am really looking forward to working with him.
...Kolo on Sven’s Ivory Coast appointment
“It’s a big challenge for him. The team needs a bit of confidence, but we have some very good players and we just need to get a bit of belief in ourselves back. We needed somebody with experience with the World Cup coming up, and now we really have one, someone who has done so much in football down the years.
“He is one of the world’s top managers, and with us not having much time to the World Cup we need to work with him when we can quickly and intelligently.”
