SENEGAL star Pape Gueye has gone on strike from playing for his country – until a new manager is in charge.
Gueye and conspired to throw away a commanding and deserved 2-0 lead over in their .
Senegal star Pape Gueye says he won’t play for the national team again until serious change is made Credit: Getty
Manager Pape Thiaw is under extreme pressure Credit: Shutterstock Editorial
Goals from and in final five minutes took the game to extra time.
‘s Tielemans then converted a penalty seconds from the end to dump the Afcon giants out.
And Gueye, who plays for , has had enough.
He was subbed just after the hour mark with passage through to the last-16 looking likely.
By the time he launched an explosive attack on boss Pape Thiaw online, things had broken down entirely.
Gueye wrote on Instagram: “I will come back later to talk about the elimination.
“But, right now, I am announcing that, as long as this technical staff remains in charge, I will be taking a break from the National Team.”
45-cap international Gueye has been a regular for Senegal since his debut in 2021.
But his fury knows no bounds after this gut-wrenching exit.
Gueye has over 1.2million followers on Insta and had only days before been .
The former Marseille and Sevilla man, 27, scored twice and assisted in that big 5-0 win.
It was the only upside to a disappointing tournament after group stage defeats to – in which , especially for the first 60 minutes – .
Manager Thiaw, 45, has been in place since 2024.
And this is just the latest episode of madness for Senegal after he said he was owed five months of unpaid wages.
Thiaw initially refused to travel to America for the tournament until the president jumped in.
He had also been without an employment contract, and Thiaw said before the Norway loss: “It was not never a money issue but a principles and respect issue.”
After the Belgium game, he tried to explain: “We had the match in hand, winning 2-0, and then we backed off a little towards the end; we wanted to hold onto the score.
“Once we conceded 2-1, we retreated even more and they scored their second goal.
“It wasn’t easy; we tried to lift their spirits and bring more energy to the team.
“It’s not easy because they gave it their all; we wanted to qualify for the people.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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