‘He Should Bring Peace, Not Fire’ - Gabon Coach Condemns Former Gor Mahia Boss for Reopening Old Wounds

Gabon coach Thierry Mouyouma watched his team edge a seven-goal thriller against The Gambia in Nairobi on Friday but the victory was more personal for him.

Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored four goals as Gabon won the 2026 World Cup qualifier 4-3 to head into the final game with a chance of sealing a direct ticket to next year’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

However, tensions were bubbling under the surface going by the words of Mouyouma who has hit out at The Gambia coach Johnathan McKinstry for what he said ahead of the game.

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McKinstry had reportedly claimed that The Gambia and Gabon are not friends, pointing to an ugly incident in November 2020 when The Panthers had their players sleeping on the floor at an airport in Banjul, having landed in the country for an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against their hosts.

The Gabon players had arrived for the match but were not allowed to exit the building, reportedly because local authorities demanded new COVID-19 tests, before they could proceed to their hotel, and their plight gained attention after star player Aubameyang, then playing for Arsenal, posted about it on social media.

Those words from the former Gor Mahia coach did not go down well with Mouyouma, who slammed the Northern Irishman for bringing tensions when he should help foster peace among Africans through football.

“The Gambia coach said before the game that we are not friends and referred to something that happened six years ago. But he wasn’t even there then. He’s a foreign coach; he should come to Africa to bring peace, not fire. That’s important,” Mouyouma told the media at Kasarani Stadium.

“When we played Kenya, they lost against us, but they never insulted our players. They applauded us. At the airport, at the hotel, they helped us. That is football. Football is not war.”

Mouyouma says he used McKinstry’s words as motivation to secure a win against The Gambia when the two teams clashed in Nairobi on Friday.

“I told my players we have to beat them because of what he said. Six years ago, they made us sleep at the airport in Gambia, and that was not football,” he added.

“But when they came to Gabon, we helped them. Even their CHAN team, we gave them support. So when a foreign coach comes to Africa, he must help bring peace between people, not divide them.”

Gabon are second in Group F with 22 points, just one behind leaders Ivory Coast, who play Kenya in their final match, and Mouyouma has declared that he will be rooting for Benni McCarthy’s men to do a favour for his team, who can qualify directly for the World Cup, if they beat Burundi and the Elephants drop points.

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