Meet the experts: Ibrahim Ba

Former France international, Ibrahim Ba, joins the FIFA Technical Study Group for the first time having recently completed his UEFA Pro Licence in Italy.

Born in Senegal, Ba grew up in Paris where he played football and became a French citizen. His professional playing career included spells with clubs in France, England, Italy, Turkey and Sweden.

After hanging up his boots, he started his coaching career as a scout with his former club, AC Milan, and has been coaching and scouting for the last 10 years while completing his UEFA B, A and Pro licences. He played for the France national team in the lead up to the World Cup in 1998 and really enjoys watching games and learning from tactical approaches in different countries.

Ba explains what he is looking forward to as part of the Technical Study Group for this tournament.

“I’m very interested to see both men’s and women’s games. The Olympic Football Tournaments have been a great platform for many big players who played in it early in their careers. I’m also really excited for the great discussions that are sure to take place among the group across both competitions.”

(1/2) Ibrahim Ba's professional playing career (1991-2008) included spells with clubs in France, England, Italy, Turkey and Sweden. He also made eight appearances for the French National team, scoring two goals.

(2/2) After his playing career, Ba went into coaching and scouting. He finished his UEFA Pro License in 2024. This picture shows him at the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland.

Men’s competition

“First and foremost, I am interested to see Thierry Henry, my ex-colleague as a head coach. This is a great experience for developing coaches as well as developing players. The squads are very strong but also, they are tight with just 16 outfield players and two goalkeepers so all players will contribute to their team’s journey. A lot of these squads have not really played together before, especially with the inclusion of three overage players it will be fascinating to see how they gel together on the pitch and the tactical approaches used,” explained Ba.

Women’s competition

“I played in Sweden in 2005 and I was so aware of how big the women’s game was there even back then. During my time there, I saw Marta playing, one of the game’s greatest ever players. It was so interesting to watch because it was a lot of short passes, really technical, but now the women’s game has developed so much, and teams are much more multi-dimensional.

“Players are physically fitter, stronger and faster and we see more bigger switches of play and longer balls, which are changing the game. Transitions are faster, players are more aggressive and creative in 1v1s and teams are tactically so diverse. I’m really interested to see the different tactical approaches by the coaches both game to game and in game,” he added.

Ibrahim Ba will be based in Paris and will observe games from both competitions.