By Adelani Ogunrinade
AFCON 2023 was a football festival that will long live in our memories. These are some of the highlights from the illustrious tournament.
The Crème de la Crème of African football gathered in Cote d’Ivoire for the 34th AFCON edition. More than 1.5 million viewers watched 24 teams compete on the fields of Ebimpe, Bouake, Abidjan, Yamoussoukro and San Pedro.
The scorching heat of the Ivorian air was too much for powerhouses like the Black Stars, The Eagles of Carthage, The Dessert Foxes and the Atlas Lions to handle. Their early eliminations from the competition sounded the end of the road for their respective coaches too. Other high profile underperformers in this year’s competition included Cameroon’s Indomitable Lions who were shown the exit door by West African rivals, Nigeria. This set the tone for a thorough overhaul of their Football federation. Seven-time champions, The Egyptian Pharaohs narrowly snatched qualification after three consecutive draws in the group stages. With an instilled arrogance, which brought a lovely hint of spice, the Pharaohs were humbled by The DRC in the second round. FIFA World Cup semi-finalist’s – Morocco, joined them on the last 16 flight’s back home after losing to underdogs – South-Africa. This ensured that no team from the Maghreb region featured in the last 8 for the third time in AFCON history.
While Mauritania and Namibia enjoyed maiden AFCON victories, a tiny island emerged – surprisingly being the first to lead the way into the last 16. Much to the delight of 500,000 Cape Verdeans, the Blue Sharks progressed to the quarter-finals for only the second time in their history. It took the excellence of South-African goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams to stop them. The Golden Gloves recipient saved 4 out of 5 shots in a penalty shoot-out to dash Cape Verdean AFCON dreams.
The spirit of Nelson Mandela was certainly with Bafana Bafana, who beautifully advertised the pedigree of the PSL throughout the tournament. The bronze medallists eventually lost to the Super Eagles of Nigeria after a tense semi-final shoot out. Winning one game only against Guinea in the last 8, was pivotal for DRC to square up with Cote d’Ivoire in the semi-finals. Bright lights were on the elephants who hailed from the doldrums of elimination and fired their coach, Jean-Louis Gasset. It was written in the stars for the elephants to survive that elimination scare and go on to survive extra-time drama in clashes with The Lions of Taranga and The Eagles of Mali, then go on to defeat the Leopards of DRC in the semi’s.
Dignitaries assembled from all corners of the world to witness a piece of African history. This was the day The Brave Elephants stood in the presence of the Super Eagles of Nigeria under the brightly lit stadium of Alassane Ouattara. It was destined to be that Emerse Fae and all Ivorians will stand as one as they broke an 18-year jinx’s of Afcon titles eluding host nations on home soil. The last host nation to win an AFCON title on its shores was Egypt in 2006 before the 11th of February, 2024.
What a magical night!
The stadium erupted like a volcano around President, Allasan Whottara and his first lady, Dominique as the Elephants of Coted’Ivoire were crowned AFCON champions! The clock has started ticking for the next tournament in Morocco next year where the new hosts have retained the services of coach Regragui in the pursuit of their second star following their 1976 triumph…
Don’t you just love the football stories the African continent tell?