Africa’s biggest sport show is here with all its exciting possibilities
Egypt's forward Mohamed Salah (right) and Egypt's midfielder Mahmoud 'Trezeguet' Hassan (left) celebrate after a goal during the 2022 Qatar World Cup African Qualifiers football match between Egypt and Senegal at Cairo International Stadium in the Egyptian capital on March 25, 2022. The 2024 Africa Cup of Nations takes place in Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11. Some of the biggest names in world football will feature at the tournament, and AFP Sport picks out five to follow: Mohamed Salah, Victor Osimhen, Sadio Mane, Serhou Guirassy and Achraf Hakimi.
What you need to know:
- All the African nations that participated in the 2022 Qatar World Cup – Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, Ghana and history-writing Morocco are in the mix
- The Pharaohs were losing finalists in 2017 and 2021, and with a fit and firing Liverpool forward Mohammed Salah in their ranks, could yet reign again
- Everybody is saying how three-time champions Nigeria have the strongest squad in Cote d’Ivoire featuring red-hot Napoli hitman Victor Osimhen, recently crowned African Player of the Year by Caf
It is that time of the year again when we get treated to a sumptuous football festival involving Africans, for Africans, in Africa.
This is the biennial continental showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations whose 2023 edition will be held in Cote d’Ivoire starting on Saturday.
I don’t get why the owners of the tournament, Confederation of African Football (Caf), awarded Cote d’Ivoire the rights to host the tournament in June-July last year only for the west African nation to request for the dates to be pushed forward to January-February 2024 to avoid the rainy season.
We all know the weather patterns in Africa. Caf should just have set the dates for the beginning of the year, as has been the case.
I am also not a big supporter of this expanded 24-nation tournament. The more, the merrier, the saying goes. But for a tournament to be tagged as the showpiece of the continent, it should involve perhaps the best 10 or 12 football playing nations on the continent, not an uncountable 24.
No slight to them, but who is dying to watch the Group “B” match between Cape Verde and Mozambique on January 19, or the Group “A” minnows clash between Equatorial Guinea and Guinea Bissau a day earlier? What about the Group “D” match on January 16 featuring Burkina Faso versus Mauritania?
Odds-on favourites
But have no doubt, and this is not a contradiction, the Afcon football jamboree still has a lot to offer fans and even the football purists are licking their lips in delirious anticipation of the action.
All the African nations that participated in the 2022 Qatar World Cup – Cameroon, Senegal, Tunisia, Ghana and history-writing Morocco are in the mix.
Morocco’s Atlas Lions, under their inspiring France-born coach Walid Regragui, became the first team in Africa to reach a World Cup semi-final, in Qatar 2022.
They surely are the odds-on favourites to lift the 2023 title. Surprisingly, the Atlas Lions, despite their well-known world exploits, have only won the Nations Cup once, way back in 1976 in Ethiopia.
A meeting between Morocco and reigning champions Teranga Lions of Senegal, or Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions or Nigeria's Super Eagles would be a delicious African classic.
Fit and firing Salah
What of Egypt? They are the most successful nation in Africa with a record seven titles. They will feel this must be their year, surely. Their last triumph was in 2010 Angola, wrapping up three consecutive wins, the only three-peat feat in the tournament’s 67-year history.
The Pharaohs were losing finalists in 2017 and 2021, and with a fit and firing Liverpool forward Mohammed Salah in their ranks, could yet reign again.
Everybody is saying how three-time champions Nigeria have the strongest squad in Cote d’Ivoire featuring red-hot Napoli hitman Victor Osimhen, recently crowned African Player of the Year by Caf.
The Chelsea-bound man, considered one of the best strikers in the world at the moment, will no doubt want to head to the English Premier League carrying the African title, and possibly the top scorer’s gong. He already has 20 goals in 27 appearances for the Super Eagles.
Veteran Ghana forward Andre Ayew is going for a different scoring record. The 34-year-old French Ligue One side Le Havre forward could become the first player to score in seven editions of the Afcon.
He shares the record of scoring in six with country mate Asamoah Gyan, Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya and Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto’o.
In fact, the Indomitable Lions goal poacher is the all-time top scorer in Afcon, with 18 goals.
Bigger prize money
But the distinction of most goals scored in one tournament falls on Ndaye Mulamba who plundered nine for Zaire (now DR Congo) in the1974 finals in Egypt. He achieved this incredible haul in an eight-nation competition.
The current stars potentially have a maximum of seven matches to rewrite scoring history.
Salah, Osimhen, Victor Boniface (Nigeria and Bayer Leverkusen), Senegal’s Sadio Mane, Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar (Besiktas), Ghana’s Mohammed Kudus (West Ham United), Morocco’s Sofiane Boufal (Al-Rayyan) et al have their work cut out for them.
Winning the title is indeed now more lucrative. In addition to earning the right to be called kings of African football for two years, champions will receive a record $7m (Sh1.1 billion) in prize money and runners-up $4m (Sh632m). Each of the two semi-finalists will pocket $2.5m (Sh395m) while the four quarter-finalists take $1.3m (Sh205m) each.
Cote d’Ivoire has not spared anything in laying out the spectacle, investing more than $1 billion (Sh158bn) in infrastructure.
The country has built four new stadiums from scratch and renovated two for the tournament.
By all means, let top Kenyan governmental officials go to West Africa and benchmark as we look forward to hosting the rest of Africa in three years’ time.
While they are there, may East Africa’s sole representative Tanzania win the bloody trophy. Katambe!
