AFCON
Yobo teams with Hadji, Cisse and Aurier as Morocco 2025 Draw Assistants
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
One of Nigeria’s most influential players at the Africa Cup of Nations, Joseph Yobo, will be one of the quartet of former footballers who will act as assistants when the final draw for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations is held this Monday in Rabat.
Yobo, was the first Nigerian to gross 100 international playing appearances.
He played every match and every minute of Nigeria’s successive 22 matches of the Africa Cup of Nations from 2002 to 2008.
No other Nigerian player ever achieved that feat. He was only substituted in the 23rd successive match when he got injured in Nigeria’s second group match against Benin Republic at Angola 2010.
He played his last match for Nigeria on the 20th anniversary of the last match played by Late Stephen Keshi. Both played their last matches on 30 June 2014 and 1994 respectively.
Yobo’s last match was his 10th World Cup match, the duel with France.
Thus, he became Nigeria’s most-capped World Cup player, surpassing the nine appearances by Austin Jay Jay Okocha in 1994,1998 and 2002.
Before then, only three other Nigerians had featured in three World Cup editions – Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Vincent Enyeama.
According to a media release by CAF, Yobo, Hadji, Cisse and Aurier will not only pull the balls from the pots but also be on hand to offer their insights into the groups for the tournament.
They are some of the biggest names in the African game and all have a rich history with the AFCON themselves.
MUSTAPHA HADJI (MOROCCO)
Hadji is renowned as one of Morocco’s greatest ever players and was named African Footballer of the Year in 1998. He won 63 caps for his country and scored 12 goals, playing at two FIFA World Cup tournaments.
He netted the winner for Morocco against Egypt at the 1998 TotalEnergies CAF AFCON, the only team to inflict a defeat on the eventual champions. He also played at the 2000 finals.
He had a successful club career in France, Portugal, Spain and England, and in 2011 received the CAF Legends award for his services to the game.
SERGE AURIER (COTE D’IVOIRE)
Aurier is a two-time winner of the AFCON having lifted the trophy in the 2015 and 2023 editions.
The right-back has been a stalwart of the national team since his debut in 2013 and has 93 caps, scoring four goals.
His club career has taken him to the likes of Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham Hotspur, and he is a two-time winner of the French Ligue 1.
He had the honour of being named in the CAF Team of the Year on four occasions between 2015 and 2019, showing his incredible consistency for club and country in that period.
ALIOU CISSE (SENEGAL)
Cisse was captain of Senegal when they excelled at the 2002 FIFA World Cup by reaching the quarter-finals against the odds, and while he failed to lift the AFCON as a player, he later did so as coach of the national team.
He won 35 caps as an industrious midfielder during a period when he played for Paris Saint-Germain in France, leading Senegal to the 2002 AFCON final where they lost out to Cameroon.
He became head coach of the national team in 2015 and would lead them through a golden period that included lifting the AFCON in 2021, and FIFA World Cup qualifications in 2018 and 2022.
He was named CAF Coach of the Year at the CAF Awards in 2022.
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Cote d’Ivoire will begin the defence of their Africa Cup of Nations title against Mozambique, while hosts Morocco open the 2025 tournament against the Comoros Islands in Rabat on Dec. 21.
Ivory Coast, who won the last edition on home soil 12 months ago, are in Group F along with five-time winners Cameroon, Gabon and Mozambique, who they meet in Marrakesh on Dec. 24.
The draw was conducted in Rabat on Monday, some 11 months before the event kicks off.
Morocco are top seeds in Group A where they will also be up against Mali and Zambia.
Egypt and South Africa were drawn together in Group B, rekindling a rivalry in the tournament stretching back to 1996.
Of the top seeds, Algeria look to have drawn the most favourable section in Group E with Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan.
Algeria crashed out in the first round in the last two tournaments.
The 24-team event sees six first round groups with the top two in each section, plus the four best third-placed finishers, advancing to the last 16.
The tournament is being held in six Moroccan cities from Dec. 21-Jan. 18, 2026.
The draw:
Group A: Morocco, Mali, Zambia, Comoros
Group B: Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe
Group C: Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania
Group D: Senegal, DR Congo, Benin, Botswana
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Morocco has selected nine stadiums in six cities for the Africa Cup of Nations finals starting in December, the country’s local organising committee said on Monday hours before the tournament draw was due to be held.
Four stadiums will be in the capital Rabat and officials said the final will be played at Complexe Sportif Prince Moulay Abdellah, which has a 69,500 capacity.
It will also host the opening match and a semi-final, along with the renovated stadium in Tangier.
Casablanca’s Mohammed V stadium was the venue for the final when Morocco last hosted the tournament in 1988 but it is earmarked for a quarter-final only this time round, along with Agadir, Fes and Marrakech.
The 24-team tournament is being held from Dec. 21-Jan. 18, 2026.
Morocco are World Cup co-hosts in 2030, along with Spain and Portugal, and plan to build a 115,000-seater stadium on the outskirts of Casablanca by 2027, which they hope could host the 2030 final.
The stadium, one of the largest in the world, will cost up to $500 million, the Moroccan government previously said.
Stadiums in Rabat and Tangier are being renovated ahead of the Cup of Nations and Morocco plans after the tournament to upgrade the stadiums in Agadir, Fes and Marrakech, which are candidates to be World Cup host cities.
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As it was 45 years ago when Nigeria first won the Africa Cup of Nations, the Super Eagles will again begin another title chase with an opening match with Tanzania. That is the sequel of the Morocco 2025 draw conducted Monday evening in Rabat.
Nigeria last played Tanzania in Uyo on September 3, 2016, in a dead-rubber game for the 2017 edition in which both teams were already eliminated. It was Gernot Rohr’s first match as Nigeria’s manager.
Nigeria Super Eagles are drawn in Group C along with Tunisia, Uganda and Tanzania. By the competition’s pre-draw fixtures, teams drawn as group heads will play the fourth teams first while teams 2 and 3 will play the second matches of the group.
That way, Morocco, the hosts, will face Comoros in the opening match of the competition.
The complete Groups
GROUP A: Morocco, Mali, Zambia, Comoros
GROUP B: Egypt, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe
GROUP C: Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Tanzania.
GROUP D: Senegal, DR Congo, Benin, Botswana
GROUP E: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan.
GROUP F: Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique
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