Ivory Coast manager Emerse Fae said he was "disappointed" and saddened by comments made by former German World Cup winner Bastian Schweinsteiger, who described Ivory Coast's playing style as "African football" — characterised as "a bit unorthodox, a bit wild, not quite as tactical" — during his role as a pundit on German public broadcaster ARD. Speaking after Ivory Coast's 2-0 victory over Curacao secured the team's first-ever place in the FIFA World Cup knockout round, Fae, who once admired Schweinsteiger so deeply that friends nicknamed him "Bastian," said the remarks could be called racist "if we were calling a spade a spade." Schweinsteiger, a key figure in Germany's 2014 World Cup triumph, has not publicly responded to the controversy.