The 35th Africa Cup of Nations starts on Sunday when hosts Morocco take on Comoros.
This edition of the tournament was originally scheduled for summer 2025, but it got pushed back six months to ensure it did not clash with the inaugural playing of FIFA’s revamped Club World Cup in June and July. Matches will be held at nine stadiums across six cities, including Marrakesh, Casablanca and Tangier. The venue for the opening game and the final is the 68,700-seater Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium in Rabat, Morocco’s capital.
AFCON is frequently full of surprises. For example, host nation Ivory Coast won the previous one in early 2024, despite losing two of their three group games.
None of the 24 competing teams are making their debut this year, but Botswana and Comoros have qualified for only the second time. Meanwhile, four-time winners Ghana — drawn in England’s group at next summer’s World Cup — failed to qualify. They trail only Egypt (seven) and Cameroon (five) in total AFCON titles, and this will be their first absence since 2004.
There will be many intriguing storylines to follow over the next few weeks. The Athletic has picked out the best ones.
Will Salah finally win AFCON?
AFCON should be the perfect distraction for Mohamed Salah after a turbulent couple of weeks with Liverpool. He will go down as a true great when he retires, but there is one main trophy which has eluded him so far in his career — and we are not talking about the Ballon d’Or.
Egypt are the most successful country in this competition’s history and won AFCON three times in a row from 2006 to 2010. But they have never won it with Salah in the team.
Salah made his senior international debut in 2011, and the closest he has come to AFCON glory was in 2022. Egypt reached the final but lost a penalty shootout against Senegal. Sadio Mane, who was playing up front alongside him for Liverpool at the time, scored the decisive spot kick. Salah also played in the 2017 final, when Egypt were beaten 2-1 by Cameroon.
A dejected Salah after Egypt lose the AFCON final to Senegal on penalties in February 2022 (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
Salah struggled with a hamstring injury during AFCON 2023 (played in 2024) and did not feature when Egypt were eliminated by the Democratic Republic of Congo on penalties in the round of 16.
Egypt have qualified for two World Cups, including 2026, with Salah — who turns 34 in June — but lifting the Africa Cup of Nations trophy would truly cement his international legacy.
Can holders Ivory Coast go back-to-back?
Nearly two years on, it is still difficult to understand how Ivory Coast won the previous AFCON.
The hosts were on the brink of elimination after losing 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea in their final group game and sacked head coach Jean-Louis Gasset two days later. Results elsewhere then went in their favour, so they qualified for the knockout phase as one of the four best third-placed teams across the six groups. After eliminating defending champions Senegal in the round of 16 on penalties, they staged a late comeback to beat Mali after extra time in the quarter-finals. A 1-0 win over DR Congo in the semi-finals was followed by a comeback 2-1 defeat of Nigeria in the final to lift the trophy under Gasset assistant turned interim coach Emerse Fae.
It will be intriguing to see how the team has grown in almost two years under Fae. Sebastien Haller and Simon Adingra missed the start of that AFCON in January last year with injuries but recovered to combine for the winning goal in the final. Haller now plays for Utrecht in the Netherlands and his career has stuttered since, but at least he is in their squad again this time, unlike Adingra of Premier League newcomers Sunderland.
Sebastien Haller celebrates his winning goal for Ivory Coast in the previous AFCON final almost two years ago (Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Villarreal’s ex-Arsenal forward Nicolas Pepe has been omitted too, but former Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha, now with Charlotte in MLS, has been called up for the first time in two years. Manchester United’s Amad should impress on his tournament debut, while Evan Ndicka and Odilon Kossounou are a solid centre-back partnership.
The last defending champions to reach even the AFCON quarter-finals were Egypt in 2010 (they went on to retain their crown). On multiple occasions since, including Ivory Coast in 2017, the holders have been eliminated in the group stage.
Could Nigeria spring a surprise?
It’s a big ask, because Nigeria are a mess. During the recent November international break, the squad boycotted training due to a financial dispute with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). The Athletic reported that players and other members of staff were owed money for previous performances and that the national government and NFF had broken promises to the team. They then failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup, after DR Congo beat them on penalties in the African confederation’s play-off final. Afterwards, head coach Eric Chelle accused DR Congo’s players of “practising voodoo” during that shootout.
Nigeria’s defence has also been torn apart. Captain William Troost-Ekong retired from international duty earlier this month, while exciting 20-year-old defender Benjamin Fredrick has been ruled out of AFCON with a late November knee injury. First-choice right-back Ola Aina is returning to full fitness after hamstring surgery, but has been left out of their squad for the finals.
They may have called up five players for the first time, but Nigeria still possess one of the strongest squads in the competition. It includes the 2024 Men’s African Footballer of the Year Ademola Lookman, plus Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen. Many of the players who lost to Ivory Coast in that final early last year will be going again in Morocco.
Apart from the agonising World Cup play-off defeat, Chelle has a great record since he took charge in January.
Can Nigeria put drama to the side and win AFCON for the first time since 2013?
Hakimi fitness key to Morocco’s hopes
Morocco were excellent at the 2022 World Cup, becoming the first African side to reach the semi-finals. Coach Walid Regragui’s squad appeared to have the perfect blend of youth and experience but holders France’s strength in depth proved too much for them in the last four.
The Moroccans were then one of the favourites to win AFCON last year. They went unbeaten in the group stage and only conceded once in their four matches, but were eliminated by South Africa in the round of 16.
They will be roared on by a fantastic home support at this edition. Fans will be expecting them to reach the latter stages, while the rest of the world will closely examine the quality of the country’s transport and stadium infrastructure as Morocco is co-hosting the 2030 men’s World Cup with Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Their biggest concern is the fitness of star player Achraf Hakimi. The 27-year-old full-back damaged his left ankle when Luis Diaz tackled him in Paris Saint-Germain’s 2-1 defeat by Bayern Munich on November 4.
A couple of weeks later, Hakimi attended a Confederation of African Football (CAF) ceremony in Rabat. He used a supportive scooter on stage that day to prevent him from putting weight on his damaged ankle as he received the award for the Men’s African Player of the Year. Hakimi has been included in Morocco’s squad, but it seems unlikely he will feature from the start of the tournament.
Hakimi at the CAF awards last month (Abu Adem Muhammed/Anadolu via Getty Images)
What is going on with Cameroon?
Cameroon’s preparation for AFCON has also been chaotic. At the beginning of December, Fecafoot (the country’s football federation) announced that manager Marc Brys had been sacked and replaced by David Pagou.
Brys had a turbulent relationship with Fecafoot’s president Samuel Eto’o — the Cameroonian former Barcelona, Inter and Chelsea striker. Cameroon have omitted several senior players from their squad for this tournament, including captain Vincent Aboubakar, Andre Onana, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Cameroon’s new head coach hasn’t even taken charge of a training session with the squad at time of writing, let alone a match.
How is Pagou supposed to get his ideas across to the players before their opening group game against Gabon on December 24? How do the players feel about Brys’ dismissal?
It seems like everything could unravel very quickly, especially as they are in a difficult group with holders Ivory Coast and Mozambique.
How far can South Africa and DR Congo go?
South Africa and DR Congo might be the most consistent African sides right now.
Both reached the semi-finals of the previous AFCON, and South Africa topped their qualifying group for next year’s World Cup. DR Congo finished second in theirs behind Senegal, then beat Cameroon in the African play-off semi-finals before getting past Nigeria on penalties in the final. They will face the winners of Jamaica vs New Caledonia in March in the final of FIFA’s Mexico-hosted inter-confederation play-offs for a place at next summer’s tournament.
It is a shame they will play at AFCON without Newcastle United forward Yoane Wissa, who has just recovered from a September knee injury so has not been included in their squad for the finals.
People tend to overlook South Africa because few of their squad play for clubs in Europe’s big five — the Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, the Bundesliga in Germany, Italy’s Serie A and French Ligue 1. But they boast one of the best domestic leagues in Africa. A significant portion of their squad play for Mamelodi Sundowns, who earlier this year got to the African Champions League final, then scored three goals in losing to Borussia Dortmund and drew with eventual semi-finalists Fluminense at the expanded Club World Cup.
South Africa and DR Congo might lack the star power of other teams at this tournament but they are well-coached and could spring surprises in Morocco. However, comments from South Africa head coach Hugo Broos about their defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi will surely have threatened the team’s harmony, despite his subsequent apology.
DR Congo fans celebrate beating Nigeria in Africa’s World Cup play-off final last month (Hardy Bope/AFP via Getty Images)
Sudan defy the odds
Sudan have qualified for AFCON for just the second time in the past 12 years. Reaching the tournament alone is a remarkable achievement by them.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by civil war. Brutal conflict between the government-led Sudanese National Army and the rebel Rapid Support Forces has led to an estimated 150,000 deaths and widespread famine. Twelve million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
In a report by The Athletic last year, Sudan’s head coach James Kwesi Appiah said: “Most of the time when we are in camp, a message will come that one of the players has lost a family member. It’s happened about five times. You have to go and console him. We speak about what is happening back at home when we’re in camp. I also see a lot of what is happening on TV. Why can’t we all do something to let these guys achieve, so that at least the people back home will be happy?”
Despite having to play their home matches on foreign soil in Mauritania, South Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia, Sudan finished second in a qualifying group featuring Angola and Ghana. They will now face Algeria, Burkina Faso and Equatorial Guinea in Group E.
