Makiadi: “For a moment, people can forget their everyday worries”

Germany may be out of the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA, but plenty of people in the country are still fully invested in the tournament. That includes Werder U23s head coach Cédric Makiadi, who won 26 caps for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They have reached the knockout rounds of a World Cup for the first time, and as Makiadi reveals in this interview with WERDER.DE, matchdays come with a special tradition in his house.

WERDER.DE: Moin, Cédric. How much sleep has this World Cup cost you so far?

Cédric Makiadi: Let’s put it this way: I’m trying to make sure I get enough sleep to do my job properly with the U23s. But for certain games, I’m happy to make a bit of an exception. A World Cup is a huge event.

WERDER.DE: It was 3:20 in the morning here when DR Congo booked their place in the knockout rounds. Were you up late celebrating?

Cédric Makiadi: That was actually the one game I didn’t watch, because we had training the next morning. I decided to stick to catching the highlights so I’d be well rested and able to bring the right level of quality to the training pitch. But the first thing I did the next morning was check the result, and of course the relief and pride were massive.

WERDER.DE: This is only DR Congo’s second World Cup, and their first for 52 years. What does football, and this tournament in particular, mean to the country?

Cédric Makiadi: This success means an awful lot. DR Congo is a football-mad country. I was part of the team when we won bronze at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015, and even then people were talking about nothing else. The World Cup is an even bigger stage.

WERDER.DE: Are you still getting a sense of the mood back home?

Cédric Makiadi: I speak to relatives in Congo every day, so I’m always hearing what’s happening over there. The joy in the country is unbelievable. It means so much to people to be able to forget their everyday worries for a little while.

WERDER.DE: You were born in Kinshasa, but your first football club was Post SV Lübeck in Germany when you were nine. What were your first experiences of football in Congo before that?

Cédric Makiadi: I lived there for the first eight years of my life and, like so many other kids, I played football in the street.

WERDER.DE: People in football often talk about that street-football mentality nowadays.

Cédric Makiadi: Playing without tactics or rules definitely shapes you. You just do what you feel like doing, purely because you enjoy the game. You’re not working on one specific technique, but without realising it you’re developing things that help you later on.

WERDER.DE: In your case, that eventually led to 26 caps for your home country. You’ve already mentioned finishing third at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2015. What does your international career mean to you?

Cédric Makiadi: It means a lot to me that I was able to represent a country in a sport that matters so much to so many people. And we had success as well. If you get the chance to play for your country, there’s nothing bigger.

WERDER.DE: During that period, you played alongside current captain Chancel Mbemba, who is now DR Congo’s record cap-holder. What kind of person is he?

Cédric Makiadi: I obviously knew him when he was still a younger player and I was one of the more experienced ones. Even then, he was hugely motivated. He was very much defined by his strength in the tackle and his aggressive style of play. The fact that he’s still part of the national team after all these years, and is now the record cap-holder, says a lot about the way he works and the character he has.

“This World Cup has clearly shown that many teams have closed the gap.”

Cédric Makiadi

WERDER.DE: A large part of the squad plays club football in Europe and has to travel around 6,000 kilometres to link up with the national team. How tough is that?

Cédric Makiadi: It’s actually manageable. We’re lucky that the time difference isn’t too big. Of course, it’s difficult if you can’t sleep on the plane, but there are other nations who have to deal with much more demanding time-zone changes.

WERDER.DE: DR Congo will be hoping to put that journey home off for a while yet, but they are clear underdogs against England in the round of 32. Why do you still believe an upset is possible?

Cédric Makiadi: This World Cup has clearly shown that many teams have closed the gap. There aren’t as many of those traditional smaller nations anymore. Germany also had to experience what’s possible when a team has tactical discipline and togetherness, and that’s exactly what we’ll need too. On paper, England have the better individual players, but that doesn’t guarantee that you win. We’ll need to be able to dig in and suffer out there, and that gives me hope that we can spring a surprise.

WERDER.DE: When the game kicks off later, what is the one thing you need when you’re watching football?

Cédric Makiadi: We actually have a funny little tradition at home. Whenever DR Congo play, I get out my old national team shirts and put them on my wife, my children and myself. For that day, we’re all DR Congo fans. That’s exactly what we’ll be doing today.

WERDER.DE: That sounds like a lovely tradition. Thanks for speaking to us, Cédric.