When will an African nation win the World Cup?

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In 1977, Brazilian legend Pelé predicted that an African nation would win the World Cup before the year 2000. 22 years later we are still waiting for the first African nation to be crowned champions of the world. Let’s look at the strides made by African football over the past few decades.

Since Pelé made his bold forecast, three African nations have reached the quarter-final stage of a World Cup. Cameroon reached the quarter-finals in 1990, eventually bowing out against England. Senegal lost out to Turkey at the same stage of the 2002 World Cup held in Japan and South Korea, while Ghana famously reached the quarter-finals of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

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A World Cup injustice

In 2010, Ghana was tied 1-1 with Uruguay after Sulley Muntari put them ahead in first-half injury time and Diego Forlán equalized for the South Americans. With just seconds of extra time remaining, Dominic Adiyiah’s goal-bound header was punched off the line by Luis Suárez. The controversial striker was sent off and Ghana was awarded a penalty. Unfortunately, Asamoah Gyan blazed his shot over the bar and in the ensuing penalty shoot-out, Ghana lost 4-2.

The Ghana trainer, Milovan Rajevac, called the penalty incident an injustice and the defeat still rankles amongst fans of the Black Stars.

African world stars

A glimpse at the list of the winners of the African Footballer of the Year award provides ample evidence of the quality of African players. The list is a who’s who of stars at top European clubs. In the past four years, Liverpool’s Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah and his former teammate Sadio Mané of Senegal have fought it out for top spot.

Between 2005 and 2009, Ghanaian midfielder Michael Essien featured in the top three African footballers for five years running. The Ghanaians André Ayew and Asamoah Gyan have also featured in the top three, beaten only by talents including Yaya Touré, Samuel Eto’o, and Didier Drogba. However, at international level, these stand-out stars often struggle with the weight of expectations on their shoulders and the lack of strength in depth available to many nations. The extent of the strain put on these star players is highlighted by Salah and Mané clocking up an incredible 112,000 air miles this year.

These disadvantages mean that African nations are invariably outsiders at the World Cup. The latest outright odds to win the World Cup on offer at https://www.bodog.eu/fifa-world-cup-betting show that it is South American nations such as Brazil at odds of +250 and European countries such as Spain, priced at +650, who are favorites to win the trophy. The lowest-priced African nation is Morocco at +10000.

The luck of the draw

African nations who qualify for the World Cup are at a disadvantage due to the seeding system, which is based on the FIFA Men’s World Ranking available at https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/men. Consequently, African countries are usually placed in Pot 3 or Pot 4 of the World Cup draw and consequently find themselves competing against two strong nations from Europe and South America.

In the current Top 20 of the FIFA ranking, there is just one African nation, Senegal who won the https://www.cafonline.com/total-africa-cup-of-nations/ in 2021. The inherent disadvantage of the seeding system demonstrates that African nations are overachieving at World Cups, especially as they are usually ranked as outsiders to qualify from the group stage. Under these circumstances, reaching a quarter-final is still an exceptional achievement.

African nations boast some of the best players in the European game and while we are still waiting for Pelé’s 45-year prediction to come true, nations from the continent are battling against tough draws to punch above their weight on the world stage.

SOURCE: www.voiceofgh.com

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