Emmet Malonetalks to the French-born Benin international who has travelled far and wide in search of success as a professional footballer

THE TOWN of Bernay in northern France remains picturesque, they say, because dense cloud obscured the target area the night Allied bombers arrived to pummel the place around the time of the Normandy landings.

More than 60 years on, there are a little over 10,000 inhabitants and according to Bernay’s wikipedia page its most famous son is one Romuald Boco, the Sligo Rovers footballer who is hoping to round off the latest chapter in his own, rather remarkable personal history on a high note this weekend.

Boco’s father moved to Bernay from the former French colony of Benin some 30 years ago now and having settled there with his French wife, Romuald was born in 1985. The youngster’s talent at football was plain from a very early age and at 12 he left home for Lens after being spotted and then recruited by the Championnat club’s scouts.

Like most other kids who sign up for a shot at the big time by that sort of age, Boco came to realise his hopes of progressing all the way through a big club’s underage ranks and breaking into the first team were more like a fantasy. Sure enough, he left Lens and ended up in the lower leagues with Niort before deciding that, like his father, he would have to travel if was going to fulfil his ambitions in the game.

His adventures since have been interesting to say the least. When still in his teens, he was contacted by the football authorities back in his father’s homeland about playing for Benin. He’d never set foot in the country when he was called up for the first time, aged 18, and he made his debut in a group stage match at the African Cup of Nations in Tunisia.

Since then he has been a regular in the side, captaining it on a number of occasions and helping it to a further two continental championships. He found travelling back to games in the country’s biggest city, Cotonou, strange at first but the people were friendly, he says, and his father’s family turning out to welcome him helped a great deal.

The team had no pedigree at all when he arrived on the scene back in 2004 but what there clearly was, he maintains, was a will to improve. A number of young players from French and other European clubs were called up around the same time and there has been considerable support from the local government and association as the group has developed together under a succession of foreign coaches.

The last to depart was fired after the team again failed to progress beyond the group stage of the tournament back in January. It was the third time they had gone out without winning a game but they did finish third in their group this time thanks to a draw with Mozambique while the two games they lost were to Nigeria, neighbours who, in football, have long overshadowed the Beninese and the eventual champions, Egypt.

Perhaps Michel Dussuyer’s firing can be seen as the sign of growing expectations but it still seemed harsh, a part of the downside, perhaps, to what he described in an entirely positive way as the “completely mental” attitude the country’s people have towards the game and their national team.

Boco is tremendously proud of his involvement with the team and of the improvement it has shown. “If we lose, it affects everyone but as soon as we do well everyone’s happy and we have done a lot better in recent times. Last time we were just one win away from qualifying for the World Cup. We could have done it. Ghana went with 13 points while we stayed at home with 10.

“The problem,” he says, “was that when we started we didn’t believe we could do it, Mali and Ghana were supposed to be better teams than us and by the time we realised we were good enough (around the time they beat Ghana at home) it was too late.”

This time around, there are only Cup of Nations places available but the team is going well, second in its group to the Ivory Coast who Boco and co will play twice in the new year. The games will provide the midfielder with further opportunities to test himself against the likes of Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Eboué and Yaya Touré.

Such chances, Boco is convinced, have helped him to improve considerably as a player but his strong performances for his country have not brought the sort of rewards at club level that might have been expected.

When he left from France for England five years ago, offers were thin on the ground until he impressed Accrington Stanley boss John Coleman and his then player-coach, Paul Cook, in a friendly against Morecombe.

He took a little time to learn the language and settle but for a while he was something of a hero at the club, helping it regain its league status after more than 40 years and scoring its first League Two goal the following season. But one particular spell away on international duty cost him his place in the team and a downward spiral ensued.

“It (Benin) is lovely and I like going there very much but sometimes it’s difficult with the club that I am playing for,” he says. “If you’re English and you play in England then of course your club is happy when you play for the national team but it’s not always the same when you have to travel to Africa for games although for me, it should make no difference, everybody’s got their country.”

In the end, it seems, he became a rather isolated figure, complaining that other squad members didn’t talk to him and referred to him as “Frenchie”. Still, Coleman spoke of him with striking warmth when interviewed about his departure in 2008.

Cook, by that time, was in Sligo and asked the player to follow him over to the Showgrounds.

“I first saw him when he came (to Accrington Stanley) on a trial and we thought he was terrific,” says the Rovers boss now.

“He just had great qualities; a natural footballer who handles the ball really well, very fit and a clever passer. On top of that you could play him anywhere: midfield, out wide, right or left back, literally anywhere and it wouldn’t faze the kid.”

Asked why Boco hasn’t made more of an impact in England – where he again tried to make a breakthrough this year only to end up at Burton for a spell before taking up an offer to return to Sligo on a short-term deal, Cook admits to being a little puzzled.

“I don’t know,” he says. “For whatever reason he doesn’t seem to do it for people over in England. Maybe they feel that he doesn’t really have one position that he can call his own, maybe that’s the problem, I can’t really say. Personally, I think the world of him and I think he could play at a very high level.”

Boco has certainly impressed again for Sligo since returning and is likely to be a key figure in the FAI Cup final tomorrow when he is expected to play out on the right, rather than in his favoured central position.

Beyond that, though, his future is entirely uncertain with no deal or even talk of one for next year yet. The economic climate, he admits, has not helped and he laments the departure for England of some of the league’s best players, observing sadly: “if the money goes, the players have no choice but to go too.

“Of course, I am open to offers,” he adds. “Everyone tries to get ahead for himself. It’s a short career and I want to do as well as I can. There are a lot of things involved, a bit of quality and a bit of luck too. I know that your life can change because somebody comes to watch somebody else but you are the best player that day.”

“If I do not make it to an English club at a very high level I will hold my hands up and say that at least I tried my best.”

He hopes to talk to Sligo about next year’s plans after the cup final. “Hopefully, before then,” he concludes cheerfully, “I will have had the cup in my hands.”