Koko Ange left Tenerife in tears on 21 December 2024.
“Tenerife will always be my home. I’ll be back,” she promised.
Nine months later, she was back on the island.
The Ivorian winger rejoined Costa Adeje Tenerife after a brief spell with Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia. Now, at the age of thirty-five, she is one victory away from returning to the World Cup.
Ivory Coast face Algeria in Casablanca on Saturday. The winners will advance to the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals and qualify directly for Brazil 2027.
She left in tears and kept her promise
Ange Mariette Christelle N’Guessan was born in Abidjan on 18 November 1990.
She arrived in Tenerife during the 2017/18 season, when the club were still known as UDG Tenerife. She joined from FC Barcelona, where she had spent the previous campaign after spells with Gintra in Lithuania and Anorthosis in Cyprus.
The island eventually became her home.
An offer from Saudi Arabia interrupted her time at the club.
Her final match before leaving was a Copa de la Reina tie against Barcelona at the Municipal de Adeje. She came on in the 73rd minute and received a warm send-off from the crowd before saying goodbye in tears.
The club facilitated her departure after recognising that Al-Ula’s offer represented an opportunity for the player and her family.
The separation lasted nine months.
Koko Ange returned in September 2025. Across her two spells, she has made more than 220 competitive appearances and scored more than twenty goals for the club.
She featured seventeen times in Liga F last season, scoring twice and providing two assists. She ended the campaign by finding the net in the victory over Deportivo that secured Costa Adeje Tenerife’s fourth-place finish.
In June, she renewed her contract for another season.
Two goals at Ivory Coast’s only World Cup
Koko Ange’s international career has involved an even longer wait.
Ivory Coast made their only World Cup appearance at the 2015 tournament in Canada.
The winger played all three matches and scored two of her country’s three goals. She found the net in the fourth minute against Thailand and scored again against Norway.
The Ivorians lost all three matches and have not returned to the tournament since.
They had qualified by finishing third at the 2014 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. Ivory Coast did not contest any of the four editions that followed.
Their return did not come through the expected route either.
Senegal eliminated them in the final qualifying round after two goalless draws and a penalty shootout. The tournament’s expansion from twelve to sixteen teams restored the place Ivory Coast had lost.
Twelve years later, Koko Ange returned to WAFCON.
A first quarter-final
Ivory Coast finished top of Group B with seven points.
They defeated Burkina Faso 4-1, drew 2-2 with South Africa and beat Tanzania 1-2. They scored eight goals, more than any other team in their group.
On Saturday, they will contest the first quarter-final in their history.
The round did not exist when Ivory Coast last appeared at the tournament. In 2014, the top two teams in each group advanced directly to the semi-finals.
This time, winning the tie will also secure a place at the World Cup.
Koko Ange scored twice during Ivory Coast’s only World Cup appearance. Eleven years after that tournament, victory over Algeria could take her country back and complete a season defined by two returns.
