Among the multiplicity of questions unlikely to be answered even after all the football has been played at the Africa Cup of Nations which commences on Saturday in Ivory Coast is the sort of influence league football has on players. Until Hassan Shehata led Egypt’s Pharaohs to three consecutive AFCON titles between 2006-10 fielding a team of almost exclusively locally based players from Al Ahly and Zamalek, it was taken for granted that European based players were a better guarantor of success.
How Mohamed Aboutrika – arguably the best player never to win the African Footballer of the Year award managed to outwit stars such as Didier Drogba, Yaya Toure, Samuel Etoo, Emmanuel Adebayor and Asamoah Gyan, on not one, not two but three occasions, ought to be a subject of study in all serious coaching manuals. Aboutrika has to be the best African player never to play in Europe.
Fast forward to 2024 and a pertinent question on all seasoned analysts lips is whether Sadio Mane, Khalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy are operating at the level necessary for Aliou Cisse’s Senegal to retain the AFCON crown they won two years ago.
In 2021/2 Mane was the reigning African footballer of the year having helped Liverpool end a barren Premier League run, Koulibaly was widely regarded as Serie A’s best defender at the time while Mendy had just won the Fifa goalkeeper of the year, having helped Chelsea win the Uefa Champions League.
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All three are now based in Saudi Arabia along with Egypt’s Ahmed Hegazi, Gambia’s Moussa Barrow, Mali’s Sekou Fofana, Morocco’s Yacine Bounou, Algerian Riyad Mahrez and Ivory Coast midfielder Frank Kessie. How the Lions of Terranga perform will thus be a reflection on the qualify of football being played in Saudi Arabia.
Walid Regragui’s runaway success at the Qatar 2022 World Cup where he helped Morocco’s Atlas Lions to become the first country to reach the semifinals has them installed as tournament favourites. But the 1976 champions have traditionally struggled at AFCON showpieces with their only other appearance in the final coming in 2004.
Second favourites Senegal ought to be taken seriously regardless of where their stars are playing on account of Aliou Cisse’s pedigree as a former winner and due to the fact they’ve been playing together for some time. There are only minor tweaks to the side that reach the round of 16 in Qatar.
Another former winner at the tournament is Algerian Djamel Belmadi who lifted the crown with the Desert Fenecs in 2019 and is keen to atone for missing out on the Qatar finals. How well he merges experienced stalwarts like Mahrez, Islam Slimani, Baghdad Bounedjah and Rami Bensebaini with upcoming stars such as exciting Union St Gilliose forward Med Amoura, Houssem Aouar and, Amine Gouiri and Wolves left back Rayan Ait-Nouri will determine how far the 1990 and 2019 winners progress.
Ivory Coast, Egypt and Nigeria complete the list of favourites. Elephants coach Jean Louis Gasset, 69, will be disappointed if he can’t guide the 1992 and 2015 winners to another final in front of their own fans. A squad boasting Frank Kessie, Sebastian Haller, Ibrahim Sangare, Moussa Niakhate and Eric Bailly ought to cause a splash.
Reigning African footballer of the year Victor Osimhen is hoping to prove his Capocannonieri in a Serie A title winning season as well as ten goals in qualifiers for AFCON 2023 aren’t a flash in the pan. With assets as accomplished as Terem Moffi, Umar Sadiq and Ola Aina also in the side Super Eagles boss Jose Poseiro, 63, has no reason not to reach the semifinals at the bare minimum.
Record seven time winners Egypt are counting on the mercurial skills of Mohamed Salah to guide them to another final. The Liverpool forward is to be well supported by the Al Ahly brigade plus foreign based stars Ahmed Hegazi, Frankfurt’s Omar Marmoush, Nice’s Mohamed Mustafa and Trabzonspor’s Trezeguet as the Pharaohs try to amend for their penalty shoot out loss to Senegal in the 2021 final.
