AFCON 2023: should we be worried about Sébastien Haller?
Sébastien Haller has lost his place in the starting XI at Dortmund. Will the Ivory Coast striker be fit for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations?
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The poor run goes on. While Guinea's Sehrou Guirassy (14 goals) and Nigeria's Victor Boniface (7 goals) are currently in blistering form, Sébastien Haller, once the most eagerly awaited African striker in the Bundesliga, has yet to find the net. For Borussia this season, the Ivorian has scored only twice, and both came in a 6-1 romp for the Black and Yellows in the German Cup against a modest regional-division side.
Signed for 31 million euros by Dortmund from Ajax Amsterdam in the summer of 2022, Haller is no longer a regular starter at BVB. He has just 330 minutes from 9 league appearances and only 11 minutes in the Champions League. It is a real setback that could worry Ivorian fans with two months to go until the Africa Cup of Nations, which Ivory Coast hosts from 13 January to 11 February. But Haller in an Elephants shirt is perhaps in hotter form right now than the one at BVB.
In Ivory Coast's last get-together, the former AJ Auxerre player scored in each of his two appearances. He got his side's goals against South Africa (1-1) and Morocco (1-1). Despite his limited game time at the German club, Sébastien Haller should again start for Jean Louis Gasset in the home game against Seychelles (17 November) and the trip to Gambia (20 November), the first two matchdays of 2026 World Cup qualifying. It will be another chance for him to reassure the many Ivorian fans. Who knows, perhaps the tide has really turned for this serial scorer who used to be criticised for being an elephant at club level and a mouse for his country?
Yacine DIENG