Even for a tournament that is always unpredictable, there is an unusually large number of title contenders looking to dethrone Sadio Mané’s Senegal when the latest edition of the Africa Cup of Nations starts Saturday.
Morocco is looking to build on its unprecedented World Cup success after becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals.
Seven-time champion Egypt will hope Mohammed Salah can help the team go one better after losing the 2021 Africa Cup final on penalties. Nigeria has African player of the year Victor Osimhen, Ghana is led by Mohammed Kudus as it goes for its fifth title and Ivory Coast can count on strong home support.
“This competiti on will be one of the strongest since I started playing in it because all the big countries are here,” said Mané, who scored the winning penalty for Senegal in the final win over Egypt in the previous edition.
The 34th edition of the biennial tournament was supposed to be played in June and July last year but was postponed to avoid Ivory Coast’s tropical rainy season.
That means it is once again being played in the middle of the European league season, forcing many top clubs to be without some of their best players for up to a month.
Napoli will have to do without Osimhen, Liverpool without Salah, and German league leader Bayer Leverkusen will be without four players — Victor Boniface (Nigeria), Amine Adli (Morocco), Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast) and Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso) — potentially undermining its bid to pip Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title.
Safety will again be an issue after eight people were killed and 38 injured in a stadium crush at the last edition in Cameroon.
The 24-team tournament will feature six groups, with games spread across six stadiums in five cities, with the final to be played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan on Feb. 12. The top two in each group and the four best third-placed teams will progress to the knockout stage.