Big Match for Big Bamba

The French connection all adds up to support for Souleymane.

The Bamba brothers, Yaya (25) and Sekou (17) will travel from Paris and their London based sister will be at Hampden on Sunday hoping to watch Sol play in one of the biggest cup match that he has ever played in. This weekend's match ranks alongside his U21 appearances for Ivory Coast in the World Cup against Spain, Egypt, Ghana, and Guinea.

Sol's 22 Dunfermline appearances since joining at the start of the season have helped him gain a regular outing in his country's B side, even captaining it against Egypt in the qualification group for the Beijing Olympics:-

"Two weeks ago I wasn't getting a game, so when I go to play for my country I am very happy because I know that I will start. In Scotland I have played a lot of games and that gives you experience. When I played for PSG I only played one game in the first team, that is too few."

Sol was born in Paris but had little inclination to continue at Paris St Germain. He explained:-

"PSG offered me a three year contract but I knew if I stayed at PSG I would not get too many games. That is why I left because I thought in was better for me. I had stayed in Paris for five years and only played two games, ten minutes maximum in the first game. I need to play because I am 22 now. That is young but I need to play more games.

The big man admits to having no idea how he ended up at Dunfermline. "It was my agent" he joked. "He said to me that I would like Scottish football because it is strong and it would be good for me."

When he arrived at Dunfermline, not only was he oblivious of where he was he was in a foreign country where he understood very little of the language. The Pars other French speaker, Freddie Daquin made the connection easing it for Sol to settle on the Rive Gauche however, but it is players from the other bank of the Forth that have been of great assistance to him as well. Sunday's opponents Abdessalam Benjelloun and Gauillaume Beuzelin have played a part too.

"Beuzellin played for Le Havre in France that is why I know him. Sometimes I go to Edimbourg after games and meet Ibrahim Tall and Julien Brellier."

In anybody's language if Sol encounters French resistance from his deux amis on Sunday another steady performance like the one he produced last Saturday would have a huge influence in both his and the Pars future. Sol has another year of his contract at Dunfermline still to serve but wants that to be another year of first team football:

"I just do my job and happy as long as I am playing. I'd like to stay if I play. If I don't play, maybe I leave I will just wait and see."

Allez Le Bamba.