Before finally getting their hands on the trophy after Sunday evening's epically tense final in Bata, it had been a long, long, long time since Ivory Coast last snared themselves an Africa Cup of Nations title.
Indeed, since winning their only Africa Cup by beating Ghana 11-10 on penalties (sound familiar?) in 1992, the Ivorians had seen 23 trophy-less years crawl by with just three runners-up medals to their name in the intervening stretch.
With that in mind, you can probably forgive Didier Drogba's brother for his brilliantly emotional reaction to watching goalkeeper Boubacar Barry stick away the winning penalty against the Black Stars.Drogba posted the video up on Instagram hours after the winning spot-kick hit the back of the net.
A video posted by didierdrogba (@didierdrogba) on
Of course, Drogba absolutely skied a penalty during normal time in the 2012 AFCON final which subsequently saw little-fancied Zambia go on to win their first-ever championship.
We think he, and the Ivory Coast team as a whole, were just about due a bit of good luck.