With Agency Report

The 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, the biennial international men’s football championship of Africa organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will be held early next year in January

The tournament is scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon, and will take place from 9 January to 6 February 2022.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be played in June and July 2021 but the CAF announced on 15 January 2020 that due to unfavourable climatic conditions during this period, the tournament would take place from 9 January to 6 February 2021.

On 30 June 2020, the CAF moved the tournament for the second time to January 2022 following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic across the continent, whilst retaining the name 2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes.

With 30 days to go for the Africa’s most glamourous football showpiece, the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, tagged “Cameroon 2021” which will kickoff on 9 January 2022 in Yaoundé, here are 30 facts from the history of Africa’s flagship football competition:

1- Egypt is the most successful country in AFCON history, having won the title seven (7) times (1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010).

2- Three teams won the title in their AFCON debut: Egypt (1957), Ghana (1963) and South Africa (1996).

3- Egypt is the only side to win the title three consecutive times (2006, 2008 and 2010). Three teams won the title twice in a row: Egypt (1957 and 1959), Ghana (1963 and 1965) and Cameroon (2000 and 2002).

4- Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o is the all-time AFCON top goal scorer with 18 goals.

5- Ndaye Mulamba (DR Congo) scored the highest number of goals in a single tournament, 9 in Egypt 1974.

6- Raafat Attia (Egypt) scored the first ever AFCON goal against Sudan on 10 February 1957.

7- Mohamed Diab Al Attar “Ad-Diba” was the first player to score a hattrick in AFCON history. He scored four goals in Egypt’s 4-0 win over Ethiopia in the maiden edition final in 1957.Nigeria won her 3rd title in 2013

8- Hossam Hassan is the oldest player to score a goal in AFCON history. He scored in Egypt’s 4-1 win over DR Congo in 2006 while he was 39 years and 174 days old.

9- Gabon’s Shiva N’Zigou is the youngest player to score a goal in AFCON history. He was 16 years and 93 days old when he scored in his team’s 3-1 defeat to South Africa in 2000.

10- Laurent Pokou (Cote d’Ivoire) scored the highest number of goals in a single match, five (5) goals in his side’s 6-1 victory over Ethiopia in 1970.

11- Three players scored at least one goal in a record six different tournaments each. They are Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon – 2000 to 2010), Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia – 1986 and 1992 to 2000) and Asamoah Gyan (Ghana – 2008 – 2017).

Ahmed Hassan of Egypt challenged by Rigobert Song of Cameroon during the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations

12- Cameroon’s Rigobert Song and Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan are the players to play in most AFCON editions. They both played in eight (8) consecutive editions between 1996 and 2010.

13- Egypt’s goalkeeper Essam El Hadary is the oldest player to play in AFCON history. He was 44 years and 21 days old when he played against Cameroon in the 2017 final.

14- Gabon’s Shiva N’Zigou is the youngest player to play in AFCON history. He was 16 years and 93 days old when he played against South Africa in 2000.

15- Egyptian duo Ahmed Hassan and Essam El Hadary are the most decorated players in AFCON history winning four (4) titles each (1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010).

16- Ghana’s Charles Gyamfi (1963, 1965 and 1982) and Egypt’s Hassan Shehata (2006, 2008 and 2010) are the coaches that won most AFCON titles, three (3) each.

17- Frenchman Herve Renard is the only coach to win AFCON titles with multiple teams, 2012 with Zambia and 2015 with Cote d’Ivoire.

18- Mahmoud ElGohary and Stephen Keshi are the only men to win AFCON titles as player and coach. El Gohary won it with Egypt in 1959 (player) and 1998 (coach), while Keshi did the same with Nigeria in 1994 (player) and 2013 (coach).

19- French Claude Le Roy is the coach that appeared in most AFCON editions, as he coached sides in nine (9) different editions. Le Roy is also the coach to lead the highest number of nations in AFCON history as he coached six different teams: Cameroon (1986 and 1988), Senegal (1990 and 1992), Ghana (2008), DR Congo (2006 and 2013), Congo (2015) and Togo (2017).

20- Egypt hosted the highest number of AFCON editions, they were the hosts five (5) times (1959, 1974, 1986, 2006 and 2019).

21- Eight teams won the tournament as hosts: Egypt (1959, 1986 and 2006), Ghana (1963 and 1978), Ethiopia (1962), Sudan (1970), Nigeria (1980), Algeria (1990), South Africa (1996) and Tunisia (2004).

22- Tunisia is the most country to appear at AFCON in consecutive appearances, fifteen (15) times (1994–2021).

23- Egypt has the record of AFCON appearances (25).

24- Nigeria is the most team to finish in top 3 in AFCON history with a total of fifteen (15) times: Winners three (3) times, runners up four (4) times, and third place in eight (8) times.

25- Egypt has the longest unbeaten streak in AFCON history, 24 games between 2004 and 2017. During this period they have a record nine (9) consecutive wins

26- A total of 44 teams qualified to AFCON finals, with Gambia and Comoros making their debuts in the Cameroon 2021 edition.

27- Ten (10) teams never qualified to AFCON finals before: Central African Republic, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Somalia and South Sudan.

Baghdad Bounedjah of Algeria celebrates goal during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Final

28- The 2019 edition had the highest number of goals scored (102 goals in 52 matches), while the 1957 edition had the fewest number of goals (7 in 2 matches).

29- The 1962 edition has the highest goalscoring ratio (18 goals in 4 matches, 4.5 goals/match), while the 1988 edition has the lowest ratio (23 goals in 16 matches, 1.44 goals/match).

30- Six (6) players won Top Scorer award in multiple AFCON editions. They are Laurent Pokou (Cote d’Ivoire – 1968 and 1970), Segun Odegbami (Nigeria – 1978 and 1980), roger Milla (Cameroon – 1986 and 1988), Rashidi Yekini (Nigeria – 1992 and 1994), Patrick M’Boma (Cameroon – 2002 and 2004) and Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon – 2006 and 2008).

Culled from CAFonline