AFCON
Diversity Of AFCON Squads – French Ligue 1 And Premier League Dominate –
- French Ligue 1 – 61 players
- Premier League– 31 players
- Saudi Pro League– 25 players
- Germany Bundesliga – 17 players
- Italia Serie A– 15 players
- Egypt/South Africa– 30 -players
- NPL – 1 player
Excitement is buzzing around the continent as the biggest gathering of African football’s powerhouses takes place at the Africa Cup of Nations Côte d’Ivoire 2023.
Players plying their trade across the top leagues in Europe, Africa and Asia will fight for national pride and bragging rights.
In this article by CAFOnline, we look at the diversity of the squads for the 24 qualified countries.
A total of 628 players will be representing the 24 qualified countries in the AFCON.
The French Ligue 1 dominates with a total of 61 players playing in the topflight. Key amongst them include PSG defender, Achraf Hakimi and Ghana captain, Andre Ayew, who plays for Le Havre.
Led by Mohammed Salah, thirty-one players are joining from the Premier League and could have been more if not for injuries to Thomas Partey and Wilfred Ndidi among others.
Clubs in the Saudi Pro League have made the list due to the recent exodus of some of the continent’s top talents from Europe to Saudi Arabia. There are twenty-five including the likes of Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez and Kalidou Koulibally.
Spain and Germany are also well represented at the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON. The La Liga has 22 while the Bundesliga has 17.
Reigning Africa footballer of the year, Victor Osimhen lead a tall list of Italian Serie A players to the tournament. A little over 15 players from Italy’s topflight are in Côte d’Ivoire for the AFCON.
In Africa’s domestic leagues, the AFCON has found a treasure trove of talents. Mamelodi Sundowns, Al Ahly and Orlando Pirates dominate the list. The three clubs combined contributed 30 players, thanks to the qualification of South Africa and Egypt.
Simba SC, Young Africans, FC Nouadhibou and Angola’s, Atlético Petróleos de Luanda also have a share of the overall talent representation at the CAF AFCON.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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