NOS Football•
Selections full of talent, plenty of atmosphere in the stands and exciting football stories. The Africa Cup, one of the largest international football tournaments, starts its 35th edition this Sunday in Morocco.
The home country has put together a strong selection and is the title favorite with stars such as Achraf Hakimi, Noussair Mazraoui and Brahim Diaz. We will publish an extensive article on Sunday about the pressure and opportunities of Morocco.
But there is much more to say about the African Cup of Nations with the most participating countries ever.
Which country is Morocco’s biggest challenger?
That has to be Senegal, which recently also easily qualified for the World Cup. The ‘Lions of Teranga’ have a new national coach, Pape Thiaw (replacement for the well-known Aliou Cissé), and a balanced selection.
That selection includes a few old hands, who form the skeleton of the team. Sadio Mané (former Liverpool) is still the great leader of the team.
Kalidou Koulibaly (former Napoli) and Édouard Mendy (former Chelsea) are also still important.
But Senegal has more beautiful footballers in the team. Iliman Ndiaye, for example, who is making waves at Everton with his speed and creativity. Or Nicolas Jackson, the handy and smart striker of Bayern Munich, who is known for missing a great chance every now and then.
And then there are two real top talents in the group: Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham Hotspur) and the only 17-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye (PSG).
Football in wartime
One of the most special stories of this Africa Cup lies behind the successful Sudan team. That country is in a terrible war. The national team offers an (unexpected) bright spot in dark times.
The Sudanese team has been considerably displaced by all the violence. The association moved from Khartoum to the coastal city of Port Sudan and the national team started playing its matches in neighboring Libya. The competition was stopped completely.
But all those problems were cleverly worked around. The country’s biggest clubs were included in the football league of Mauritania and now Rwanda. One of those teams, Al Hilal, even qualified for the African Champions League, far from home soil.
And those matches of the Sudan national team in Libya simply became a football celebration. People from the Sudanese diaspora were en masse in the stands in Tripoli. They almost even reached the World Cup.
Badran Albatal of the Football Association put it to the medium OkayAfrica together. “Our football has succeeded in what our politics could not do, interrupting the noise of the war, even if only for ninety minutes.”
Sleeping giants
On behalf of Africa, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde and possibly Congo will go to next summer’s World Cup. Two traditional top countries are missing from this list: Cameroon and Nigeria. They were looking for revenge at the African Cup.
But that will be quite difficult, especially for Cameroon. The long-running conflict between former top footballer Samuel Eto’o (now chairman of the federation) and national coach Marc Brys recently entered a new chapter.
The association published the Africa Cup selection, but ‘national coach’ did not contain the name of Marc Brys, but that of David Pagou. It seems like another attempt by Eto’o to bully Brys away. It remains unclear who will actually lead the group.
Things are much calmer in Nigeria, but missing out on the World Cup has had a major impact. The ‘Super Eagles’ were defeated by Congo and that was certainly not appreciated.
Yet Nigeria does have a very strong selection, with superstar Victor Osimhen as the biggest name.
A World Cup opponent of the Dutch team
From a Dutch perspective, it is not only nice that a lot of Premier League players are participating in the Africa Cup. You should also pay attention when Tunisia plays, because the Dutch team will meet that country at the World Cup.
Tunisia qualified for the World Cup without conceding a single goal. This fits with the reputation of the team, which is sometimes called ‘the Italy of Africa’ because of its defensive play.
But current national coach Sami Trabelsi has modernized the team. Tunisians are no longer constantly walking backwards. There is also an attack under Trabelsi.
The African Cup of Nations starts next Sunday with the match between Morocco and the Comoros.
