The scorer of the 1-1 goal against Portugal risked losing his sight after being attacked with acid by a woman outside his house: “I suffered a lot, but now I represent my country and I’m proud of it. Round of 32? Let’s work for that”
Yoane Wissa’s face tells his story better than words. The striker who stopped Ronaldo’s Portugal wears glasses and has scars around his eyes. The signs of a painful past. In 2021 he was attacked with acid by a woman on his doorstep: “A story I don’t want to talk about much because it still hurts, but I risked losing my sight and not playing anymore. I suffered from it.” Life gave him something back: in Houston he scored the first goal in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo in a World Cup. We meet him in the mixed zone, where he was the last to leave.
Yoane, what did you think after the goal?
“I prayed I wasn’t offside, I didn’t understand anything. It will take me a while to process. I was reminded of the millions of Congolese around the world, the children of the diaspora due to the war and obviously Zaire, the kids of 1974.”
You were born in France, like 19 other players out of 26. What did they tell you about that World Cup?
“Which was a story of resilience, painful, hard. They told me about Ilunga’s famous punishment and also about the consequences. Well, you can say after 52 years we have added a new memory to the country.”
How is the situation now?
“Not easy. There is war in the east of the country.”
What massage do you want to send?
“We must be an example, demonstrate that we are strong, united and pray in peace. Even today we must be resilient. This point is for all Congolese, for those who remained at home, for those who have traveled and for those who are no longer here. Let’s resist”.
Tell us a little about yourself: is it true that you played in goal?
“Yes, I had fun like that as a child. Then I also played rugby. Mine is a real apprenticeship story, where I had to fight. It was Lorient that changed my career, between Ligue 2 and Ligue 1: I scored a lot there, then Brentford, in the Premier League, and finally Newcastle. It was a difficult year, I didn’t make a difference, but I’ll come back hungrier than before.”
What can you tell us about Tonali?
“Great player, ‘nice guy’. Before going to the World Cup, jokingly, I told him: ‘Me in the United States and you at home eh’…”.
Is the sixteenth goal within reach?
“We work for this. We have achieved the first point in our history, now we must conquer the first three”.
He will be able to tell his son about stopping Ronaldo.
“This 1-1 will go down in the books, beyond Cristiano, who remains an unattainable phenomenon. But we have shown that work and sacrifice can overturn predictions. The journey is still long and we are happy about it, but for one day, just one, let us enjoy what we have done. We have left a lot of ourselves on the pitch.”
Do you ever think back to that acid attack in 2021?
“Well, what does it matter? I came out of it after a long journey and now I’m calm, happy: it took me months to regain my full sight, I can say that. But now I am and we are here, at the World Cup, 52 years later, enjoying a result that no one expected. That’s all that matters.”
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