As young football fans growing up in the various streets and cities of Nigeria and Africa at large, the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) formerly known as the Orange African Cup of Nations was one great tournament we looked forward to.
Back then we weren’t much familiar with the happenings in club football. That was before we became club football fans. I remember always talking about the tournament with much enthusiasm with my school mates back then, such was the love for African football.
In the recent past, there were stars scattered all over Africa both home and abroad, players who paid their dues and held their own against players from all around the world. Even around the 2000s and 2010s. We had players like Eto’o and Alex Song from Cameron, Drogba, Kalou etc from the Ivory Coast, Michael Essien and the Ayew brothers from Ghana, Mikel, Yobo, Aiyegbeni etc from Nigeria. Even Togo and Mali had the likes of Emmanuel Adebayor and Seydou Keita respectively. Not also forgetting Egypt who had home based stars like Mohamed Aboutreika, Ahmed Hassan etc. These were players who were well known all around
the world. So the AFCON was a prestigious tournament where those stars would come, represent
their countries and and light up the tournament with their presence. Almost all the teams had players who are well known all around the world.
Fast forward to the present times, one might argue that these types of players are diminishing from African football. Take for example the just concluded AFCON which was hosted by the Ivory Coast, asides from Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal one might argue that there were relatively less known players in the other teams, and this was not so in times past.
While we applaud the quality of football which greatly improved at the last tourney and also the great hospitality the host nation put together, there’s need for
African nations to go back to the drawing board and develop stars for future tournaments.
Special attention should be paid to the local leagues, no nation can ever go forward without a substantial investment in the organization and officiating of the local leagues. These local leagues serves as a platform where these relatively unknown stars scattered
all over Africa can be launched to be seen by the whole world.
There should also be need to eliminate corruption in the various football governing bodies as there have been ugly reports about the mismanagement of
funds that should go to the development of football in the various nations. The grassroots should also be given a proper attention as all the great stars we know
today started from somewhere. Take for instance the current African footballer of the year, Victor Ösimhen, he was discovered from the grassroots and taken to the FIFA U-17 world cup and from there, the rest became history.
There are still several talents left
unknown which needs to be discovered. This will help African football return back to the good old days of supplying the rest of the world with stars. That being said, I believe that this can be achieved and all hands should be on deck to make sure Africa goes back to the right place of having several known football stars and in no distant time, will result in a scenario where an African team wins the world cup.
While the level of football being played and officiating has greatly improved as seen on the last AFCON this can only be the beginning of greater things of the right things can be done by the various FAs to ensure that African football returns back to the zenith.