Credit - Derek Bruff/ Flickr
The tournament was delayed by a whole year due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
The opening game will be greeted by a wave of the West African tradition and pride, which will take place in the newly built 60,000-seater at the Paul Biya Stadium in Yaoundé.
Algeria, the reigning champions of the 2019 competition will be aiming to retain the trophy, but the quality of African teams has vastly improved, so it’s not a done deal for the “Desert Foxes”.
The draw for the main competition will take place on the 25th June, where there will be 24 teams made up of six groups of four.
Eight teams took part in a competitive a preliminary round, the winner over two legs advanced to the final round and the group stage of qualifying. Chad, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe and The Gambia were the winners and joined the group stages thereafter.
44 teams contested, qualifying from 12 groups of four, where the top two advanced gleefully into the main tournament.
Qualifying early from group A as the winners, Mali finished at the summit with 13 points.
Ex Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita is their most capped player (102) and goal scorer (25) respectively.
The Capital of Mali is Bamako.
Yves Bissouma of Brighton and Hove Albion will be key in the centre of midfield for “Les Aigles” (The Eagles).
Mohamed Magassouba is the head coach of Mali.
Runners up in group A was Guinea who boasted eight goals and 11 points.
Guineas’ nickname is interestingly the “Syli National” which translates into National Elephants.
The Capital of Guinea is Conakry.
Naby Keita has been capped 40 times for his country and has chipped with eight goals and is their most dangerous attacking player.
Famous French National team player Didier Six is the manager of Guinea.
Topping group B without losing a game was Burkina Faso ending the group stage with 12 points.
This will be the “Stallion’s” 13th appearance in the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Capital of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou.
Betrand Traore who plays for Aston Villa will be a tricky customer for any defender in the tournament, with a wand of a left foot, he will be looking to make a mark for his country.
Kamou Malo is the head coach of Burkina Faso and his son Patrick Malo also plays as left-back for the country for your trivia knowledge.
Malawi finished second in group B with 10 points whilst only scoring four goals in the group stage.
Young Chimodzi played for “The Flames” 159 times and managed the country twice.
The Capital of Malawi is Lilongwe.
Midfielder John Banda will be pulling strings in midfield for Malawi.
The manager is Meke Mwase.
Ghana edged out Sudan for the top spot in Group C by one point as both nations scored nine goals each and letting in six goals in their respective nets.
Ghana had the youngest team at the 2006 world cup in Germany with an average of 23 years and 352 days.
The Capital of Ghana is Accra.
The talisman of the team is the ever-present Andre Ayew, the Swansea forward, who will be looking to add the Africa Cup of Nations to his honours.
The manager is Charles Akonnor who captained the “Black stars” National team in the 90s.
Sudan finished as runners up in Group C to Ghana, which was a fiercely contested battle, where South Africa were edged out by two points in third.
Sudan won the competition in 1970 whilst beating Ghana one goal to nil, Ghana at the time were known as the “Brazil of Africa”.
The Capital of Sudan is Khartoum.
Nasr Eldin is the talisman for the “Falcons of Jediane”.
Hubert Velud is the manager of Sudan; he was involved in the incident with the Togo national football team when their team bus was attacked by rebels.
The Gambia did the unthinkable as they qualified for their first edition of the Africa Cup of Nations and did it in spectacular fashion. Whilst ending on the same points as rivals Gabon, it took 6 tiebreakers to separate the two nations. As The Gambia scored nine goals to Gabon’s eight, they qualified as group winners and Gabon runners up.
“The Scorpions” won their first-ever away match in an African Cup of Nations or FIFA World Cup qualifier vs Angola on their 40th attempt on the 13th of November 2019.
The Capital of The Gambia is Banjul.
Musa Barrow, the pacey winger on the books of Atalanta but on loan with Bologna is ready to show the world what all the hype is about.
Having coached nine other national teams, Tom Saintfiet has now been at the helm for three years with The Gambia.
Runners up Gabon were made to wait, whilst a tiebreak was needed to separate themselves from Sudan at the top by goals scored. But they qualified in second place, nevertheless.
Gabon have reached the quarter-finals on two separate occasions in 1996 and when they were co-hosts in the 2012 edition.
The Capital of Gabon is Libreville.
The Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who has scored a high of 27 goals for his country, will be looking to shine his premier league light on “The Panthers” in Cameroon as he leads the line for his country.
Patrice Neveu will be managing his first Nations Cup with Gabon in 2022.
Scoring 10 goals and only conceding one, it’s safe to say Morocco cruised to the 2021 Africa Cup of nations in style while grabbing the top spot without shifting too many gears.
Surprisingly Morocco has only won the competition once at the 1976 edition in Ethiopia and were runners up in 2004.
The Capital of Morocco is Rabat.
The key player of this enigmatic side is the recent Chelsea capture, winger Hakim Ziyech who scored 3 goals in the qualification stages to progress the “Atlas Lions” in group E.
The man who has previously coached Ivory Coast and fierce North African rivals and neighbours Algeria, Vahid Halilhodzic is the man looking to guide Morocco to their second title in Yaoundé.
The “Lions of Chinguetti” were runners up to Morocco in group E and deservedly made it into the hat for the competition.
This will be the second time Mauritania have qualified the main draw of any Africa Cup of Nations.
The Capital of Mauritania is Nouakchott.
On-loan Fulham player Aboubakar Kamara is looking to fight for his place as a newly capped player for the National side.
The French National Corentin Martins is the manager of Mauritania, he once played alongside the wizardly Zinedine Zidane.
As hosts of the 2021 edition, Cameroon qualified automatically but still took part in the qualification process.
Cameroon has won the Coupe d’Afrique des Nations a whopping five times and will be looking to add another with the backing of the fans at home.
The Capital of Cameroon is Yaoundé.
Besiktas forward Vincent Aboubakar is the man looking to provide the firepower as he looks to lift the trophy for a second time.
Toni Conceicao took over the reign of “The Indomitable Lions” in September of 2019 when Clarence Seedorf was sacked as manager.
Runners up in a group where the host was already qualified might have been a strange one, but Cape Verde stuck to their task and ended up a point behind the host nation Cameroon.
The “Blue Sharks” were not even a member of CAF (Confederation of African Football) until 1992 and were still under Portuguese governance until 1974.
The Capital of Cape Verde is Praia.
Heldon, of Shabab Al-Ahli, is the countries, all-time top goalscorer, with 15 goals to his name and he will be itching to add more to his tally.
Former Captain of Cape Verde, Pedro Leitao Brito, formerly known as “Bubista” is the manager of the National side.
Three wins and three draws made qualifying for their 25th Nations Cup a walk in the park as Egypt topped the group with 12 points.
With seven wins to their name “The Pharaohs” are the all-time leading record holders of the Africa Cup of Nations. Ahmed Hassan also has 184 caps to his name which makes him the most capped international male footballer of all time.
The Capital of Egypt is Cairo.
Liverpool striker, Mohamed Salah only had two goals to his name in qualifying, but he will be ready to add this elusive trophy to his ever-growing cabinet.
Manager
The current manager of Egypt is former national team player Hossam El Badry, who sustained a cruciate ligament knee injury early in his career at age 25 and had to retire.
Only losing one match in Group G Comoros were runners up with nine points whilst scoring four goals.
Named after a rare order of fish called “Coelacanths”, and this is The Comoros first time qualifying for the Africa Cup of nations.
The Capital of The Comoros is Moroni.
El Fardou Nabouhane, the tricky forward from Red Star Belgrade is the country’s top all-time goal scorer and will be looking to unlock the doors for The Comoros at next year’s tournament.
Born in Marseille, Amir Abdou started his coaching career as a youth coach at Golfech Saint Paul, he is now the longest-serving manager for The Comoros and the first to guide the country to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Unbeaten in Group H Algeria won four matches and drew the other two whilst topping the group with 14 points. Algeria scored 19 goals in the process, the most in qualifying.
This is “The desert Foxes” 19th time to qualify for the tournament. They have won the competition twice.
The Capital of Algeria is Algiers.
Riyad Mahrez, of Manchester City, is still the one to watch for Algeria as the spritely winger scored three goals for his nation in qualification.
Once on the books of Manchester City and Southampton the maverick Djamel Belamdi is the coach of Algeria.
Zimbabwe, who were runners up to runaway leaders Algeria, qualified for their fifth tournament.
Zimbabwe’s highest ever FIFA ranking was 40th in the world.
The Capital of Zimbabwe is Harare.
Tino Kadeware, of Lyon, will be running the forward line and should be looking to add goals to his game if “The Warriors” stand to have any chance in the competition.
Zdravko Logarusic, the manager of Zimbabwe has guided his side to their third successive tournament.
Easily winning Group I “The lions of Teranga” claimed 14 out of a possible 18 points.
Sadio Mane is sixth on the list of appearances for the Senegalese National team with 71, and third on the list for goal scoring with 21, eight behind Henri Camara.
The Capital of Senegal is Dakar.
Sadio Mane, the dazzling forward for Liverpool is looking to add this trophy and will battle out his teammate Mo Salah in the quest for the trophy.
Aliou Cisse has been in the manager hot seat with Senegal for six years and he boasts a good record in bringing up his national talent. Having come close as a player and a manager, twice coming runner up. Cisse will be looking to pass this hurdle and claim the trophy for his nation.
Despite losing three games in the group stages Guinea-Bissau qualified for the 33rd edition of the competition as runners up scoring nine goals.
Guinea-Bissau was still a part of Portugal in the early 1990s, so didn’t enter qualifying for CAF until 1994.
The Capital of Guinea-Bissau is Bissau.
Nanu, of Porto, will be marshalling the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho in next Summer’s competition.
Former player of the National side, Baciro Cande has managed the “Djurtus” twice and will have guided them to their 3rd successive Nations Cup.
Collecting five wins out of a possible six, Tunisia steam-rolled their opposition in joining the other 23 teams in Cameroon.
Tunisia won the trophy once at the 2004 edition when they held the tournament as the host nation.
The Capital of Tunisia is Tunis.
Seifeddine Jaziri, of Zamalek in Egypt, is the main goal threat for the “Eagles of Carthage”.
Mondher Kebaier is currently on a three-year contract with Tunisia which is due to expire next year after the tournament, so a good performance next year is a must for his players.
Winning three matches in Group J allowed the “National Thunder” to progress as runners up at the expense of Tanzania by one solitary point.
Equatorial Guinea came 4th place in their second-ever appearance in the main competition when they hosted the tournament for the first time in 2015.
The Capital of Equatorial Guinea is currently Malabo.
Pedro Obiang once of West Ham is the midfield general in the side, he will be hoping to screen the defence and keep the backline steady.
Juan Micha is both the Manager of the senior side and the U-17 National Team of Equatorial Guinea.
Ivory Coast finished top of Group K with four wins and scoring eleven in the process.
Ivory Coast has picked up the prestigious African award two times in 1992 and 2012.
The Capital of Ivory Coast is Yamoussoukro.
Wilfried Zaha, the Crystal Palace match-winner is going to have to put his premier league struggles away and lead his nation to glory.
The relatively unknown assistant under Rene Renard, Patrice Beaumelle has now turned his hand as the National team manager of “The Elephants”.
Scoring 10 goals and being able to edge out Madagascar by one point was the only difference between qualifying and despair. The “Walia Ibex” were runners up and made the dream another reality.
Ethiopia won the third edition of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1962, this was their first and their only win to date.
The Capital of Ethiopia is Addis Abada.
Getaneh Kebede scored three goals in qualifying which guided his team to a second-place finish and a spot in the competition next year. He also has the bragging rights of being the top goal scorer for his country with 30 goals.
Wubetu Abate is in his second year of management of Ethiopia and he takes charge of his first Africa Cup of Nations.
The “Super Eagles” qualified in style of Group L with four wins and zero losses, scoring 14 goals in the process topping the group. Victor Osimhen with five goals, made him the top joint scorer of the qualification process with Zambia’s Patson Daka.
This is Nigeria’s 19th time in the main draw, and they have three wins to their name. The last of those wins coming in 2013. Is this the year the Eagles finally take flight?
The Capital of Nigeria is Abuja.
Wilfried Ndidi, the swashbuckling midfielder and Leicester City protagonist has finally emerged out of the shadow of N’golo Kante and is going to show his worth in the competition which is less than a year away now.
Gernot Rohr has been with the Eagles for five years now and has a win percentage of 56% with the Nigerian National team winning 31 games out of 55.
Sierra Leone vs Benin was the final match in Group L to decide who would book the last spot in Cameroon. The match was called off on the 30th March 2021 as Benin refused to play the match as some of their players returned positive COVID 19 results before kick-off. CAF has ordered the game to be played in the next international window in June.
As the tournament draws closer, we await the draw as Africa’s best takes the main stage once again to show the world and continent what it has to offer.
Au revoir.
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