African Football Discussion Thread Current Topic: 👉 AFCON 2025/2026

[Ale88]

I don’t know how Ademola Lookman made it into the discussion but yes Lookman has been a shadow of himself recently.

He pretty much decided to sabotage his own carrier when he openly went public against Atalanta, the management, the fans, etc etc. It looks like he already had an agreement with Inter before Inter would get in touch with Atalanta (and that is obviously against the rules) and when Atalanta refused to accept a low offer from Inter he went crazy and he was excluded from the team. And as soon as this circus began Inter decided to buy a different player so Lookman had to stay in the team he just talked shit about. Not a very smart move from him.

[Mayor of ogba]

The players that will rival Victor Osimhen for the next African best player of the year award are not currently performing well, and if they continue performing like that till this season ends, the World Cup won't stop Victor Osimhen from winning the African best player of the year award. If Victor Osimhen can maintain his current performance for Galatasaray and also perform well for Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations, he will win the African best player of the year award.

But what if they use the world Cup to no the players they can award it?, the international football has use champions League to give the most competing award so since this was the period of world cup they might see it important to do so, so if they use it then Victor Osimhen will not be awarded because they will give the award to a close equivalent to him who are already in the world cup. By the way you have not mention the player in your mind to compete with Victor Osimhen or are you using the last player who won the award to maintain his competition?, it might be a non competitive players now but more could rise.

I'm not saying that CAF won't consider the performance of African players in the World Cup when they are crowning the next African best player of the year award, but is there any African player who is currently performing well for his club and you believe the player will use the World Cup to win the African best player of the year award? Like I said in my previous post, even though Victor Osimhen doesn't play in the World cup, if he can maintain his current performance for Galatasaray this season and Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations, there's a big chance for him to win the next African best player of the year award. I see Mohamed Salah as one of the players that can possibly beat Victor Osimhen to win the African best player of the year, but since his performance for Liverpool this season is below expectations, I don't think his performance in the World Cup can make him win the award.

[Rockson1]

The coach's excuse was such childish rubbish to say. How does it correlate with the current situation at hand? If it were true that voodoo makes victory in sports, why haven't the African countries been able to win the World Cup with it?  He can also say that the
The players were all charmed and bewitched to remain around till the match was over.

When people fail, the next thing is to make excuses for themselves, this is how myopic some people can be, Africa as a continent don't have what is required to win the world cup and even though the have, they don't know how to prepare the players to win the world, i do not believe in theory, everything about football is practical, the excuses will explain things to a very large extent to us that, we have jokers around the football environment, how will someone with such role say such, I think that say a lot about Africans, if we continue like this the entire world of football will keep taking African football unserious.

[Umulala-alala]

Very funny, given the group that Nigeria was in the qualifiers and the kind of players they have I their ranks, I mean most of the players are playing in Europe's top flight respective leagues and we still struggle to qualify from that kind of a group. It's totally embarrassing on a serious note. Nigeria in the first place wasn't even supposed to be in the category of playing in the play offs, that's were they got it wrong in the first place.

Is that not funny to see a country that have different players in different leagues of the world and still struggling to qualify for the world cup? Well, you don't have to be surprised because this is a pure act of corruption. Who knows if these players have not being paid their wages and have to suffer, go for training and all other things for them to strive to qualify but still does not meet up with the fans expectations. I blame their poor performances on the government not the team and the coach.

The country has failed in all areas of expectations, Nigeria has the best players in Africa if i was told before now that the super eagles won't qualify for the world cup i won't believe such thing, the coach change Victor Osimhen in our match against Dr congo i knew something was wrong, Nigeria is a place of corruption so anything is possible, the country is not at peace most of the players wouldn't also be playing with their full heart i don't just know when this nation called Nigeria will be better.

[Futurexxx]

The country has failed in all areas of expectations, Nigeria has the best players in Africa if i was told before now that the super eagles won't qualify for the world cup i won't believe such thing, the coach change Victor Osimhen in our match against Dr congo i knew something was wrong, Nigeria is a place of corruption so anything is possible, the country is not at peace most of the players wouldn't also be playing with their full heart i don't just know when this nation called Nigeria will be better.

Am not blaming Eric Chelle our super eagles manager for removing victor osimhen because he had an injury, and if he was force or given painkillers to continue, we will be doing more damage to the already existing injury he had, so I support the decision of the coach.
Why our super eagles team struggled and never made it to next year fifa world cup was very obvious even to someone blind, because the system is totally dead due to corruption, they put politicians in charge of footballing matters and be expecting them no to play politics with our football?
The only positive thing about all these was that at least we are going to realize that our football has gone backwards and needed fixing, not by managing it as if it was better.

[Wakate]

The country has failed in all areas of expectations, Nigeria has the best players in Africa if i was told before now that the super eagles won't qualify for the world cup i won't believe such thing, the coach change Victor Osimhen in our match against Dr congo i knew something was wrong, Nigeria is a place of corruption so anything is possible, the country is not at peace most of the players wouldn't also be playing with their full heart i don't just know when this nation called Nigeria will be better.

Bad management has been the reason why Nigeria is not developing or improving day by day. The government is not trying at all and these players are supposed to be fed well so that they can play their matches with full skill and concentration. As the government is playing with these players with fake and unreal promises, this is making them to play less and not able to win their matches.

[Adbitco]

Very funny, given the group that Nigeria was in the qualifiers and the kind of players they have I their ranks, I mean most of the players are playing in Europe's top flight respective leagues and we still struggle to qualify from that kind of a group. It's totally embarrassing on a serious note. Nigeria in the first place wasn't even supposed to be in the category of playing in the play offs, that's were they got it wrong in the first place.

Is that not funny to see a country that have different players in different leagues of the world and still struggling to qualify for the world cup? Well, you don't have to be surprised because this is a pure act of corruption. Who knows if these players have not being paid their wages and have to suffer, go for training and all other things for them to strive to qualify but still does not meet up with the fans expectations. I blame their poor performances on the government not the team and the coach.

The country has failed in all areas of expectations, Nigeria has the best players in Africa if i was told before now that the super eagles won't qualify for the world cup i won't believe such thing, the coach change Victor Osimhen in our match against Dr congo i knew something was wrong, Nigeria is a place of corruption so anything is possible, the country is not at peace most of the players wouldn't also be playing with their full heart i don't just know when this nation called Nigeria will be better.

What do you want me to say na, lol. The Super Eagles has been dead for ages now, so I'm not surprised with whatever strings they are pulling out now. Again, even the countries footballing body played a major role or should a say path in killing the national team through their corruption and nepotism. Firstly, how do they want the players and staffs to effectively do their jobs when they are been owed wages. Those players didn't play with their hearts out from the beginning of the qualifiers, they only tried to do that towards the ending and we saw how effectively they played. For me, what ever that's happening in the national team, I'm not surprised.

[SatoPrincess]

The African cup of nations is fast approaching and groups seem to be nearly double ended I. The sense that every group has their giants and prey. Morocco in group A with Zambia, Mali and Comoros to oppress when the time comes. Nigeria seems to be the group C promising Top team for me with Tunisia, Tanzania and Uganda. Be it as it may, I think Nigeria still has the opportunity to top the group after the group stage. Cape Verde is missing in all the groups after qualifying for the world cup. Does it mean they did not qualify for the AFCON 2025. Again why is Morocco enjoying this level of privilege, hosting almost all the African games recently. Sources also said that Morocco will host the next Women AFCON. I know they have the infrastructure and FIFA rankings but I feel it's becoming so political and unfair.

Who will win the AFCON 2025?

I don’t see how the grouping is unfair. Personally I don’t like to encourage this sort of narrative because it doesn’t do our team any good. These sort of reasoning is why Super Eagles manager had the confidence to blame vodoo for Nigeria’s loss to DR Congo.

[Fiatless]

I don’t see how the grouping is unfair. Personally I don’t like to encourage this sort of narrative because it doesn’t do our team any good. These sort of reasoning is why Super Eagles manager had the confidence to blame vodoo for Nigeria’s loss to DR Congo.

Eric Chelle was so frustrated that he made the Voodoo claim. His claim was unnecessary because it was clear that Congo was more prepared than the Super Eagles. The Nigerian team was lucky to play the game for 120 minutes. Based on the quality of the Congolese side, the Super Eagles deserved to concede up to three goals. His Voodoo claim tarnished the image of the Congolese and African football generally.

[Iamgoat]

When people fail, the next thing is to make excuses for themselves, this is how myopic some people can be, Africa as a continent don't have what is required to win the world cup and even though the have, they don't know how to prepare the players to win the world, i do not believe in theory, everything about football is practical, the excuses will explain things to a very large extent to us that, we have jokers around the football environment, how will someone with such role say such, I think that say a lot about Africans, if we continue like this the entire world of football will keep taking African football unserious.

This is the hard truth most of them are running away from. I even do always wonder why every time when an African team loses the excuses they come with are things like the pitch was bad, the referee robbed us the weather did work against us the players were tired as they are just coming from the Europe and so on and so forth. Meanwhile no body wants to talk about the actual problems bedeviling us, things like the poor training facilities, poor wages, player development almost zero and I even heard our players do have to wait until when it is less than 5 months to world cup before they start thinking about the formations and other serious preparations. I guess we do forget footvall is a practical game and does not survive on excuses. How do you expect us to compete successfully with teams like Brazil, Spain and others who build systems from age 10 and above. We have to stop this culture of blame game if we must really make the real impact for ourselves.

[SatoPrincess]

I don’t see how the grouping is unfair. Personally I don’t like to encourage this sort of narrative because it doesn’t do our team any good. These sort of reasoning is why Super Eagles manager had the confidence to blame vodoo for Nigeria’s loss to DR Congo.

His Voodoo claim tarnished the image of the Congolese and African football generally.

Lol, no it didn’t. Éric Chelle‘s silly comments only made the Super Eagles look unserious. Anyone with brains know there is no such thing as voodoo in football, if there was, Africa should have the record for the winning the highest number of FIFA World Cups.

[Marykeller]

Again why is Morocco enjoying this level of privilege, hosting almost all the African games recently. Sources also said that Morocco will host the next Women AFCON. I know they have the infrastructure and FIFA rankings but I feel it's becoming so political and unfair.

I get your point, but I don't think the Moroccans hosting almost all the African games is political as you think. The country has a strong infrastructure(a very good world-class stadium) that other African countries don't have, and the country is welcoming and safe for visitors compared to other African countries that have poor infrastructure and security problems.

In Morocco, there is no late-minute disappointment or lack of stability. Everything is built on international standards(stadium, airport, roads and hotel)

[Son Of Blockchain (SOB)]

I don’t see how the grouping is unfair. Personally I don’t like to encourage this sort of narrative because it doesn’t do our team any good. These sort of reasoning is why Super Eagles manager had the confidence to blame vodoo for Nigeria’s loss to DR Congo.

Eric Chelle was so frustrated that he made the Voodoo claim. His claim was unnecessary because it was clear that Congo was more prepared than the Super Eagles. The Nigerian team was lucky to play the game for 120 minutes. Based on the quality of the Congolese side, the Super Eagles deserved to concede up to three goals. His Voodoo claim tarnished the image of the Congolese and African football generally.

He can decieve his like minds not people like you and I, we all saw the unseriousness in those players, the one who even tried to show some seriousness was Osimhen so Chelle shouldn't feel that everyone would be shallow minded to believe the thrash he air to the public after that disappointing lose, what he would've done was tender apologies for the humiliation instead of giving silly excuses.
 Also, why would anyone even think the grouping is unfair when Nigeria is the most favourite to come first in their group, which other teams in that group had a squad compared to the Nigerian team, our squad was very capable of beating everyone but the unseriousness in the team was too much that was why we failed to easily qualify.

[Obim34]

Bad management has been the reason why Nigeria is not developing or improving day by day. The government is not trying at all and these players are supposed to be fed well so that they can play their matches with full skill and concentration. As the government is playing with these players with fake and unreal promises, this is making them to play less and not able to win their matches.

Money isn't a problem for majority of our players and cannot be a sole reason for our bad performance. Aside from our base players or those playing majorly in African Leagues, others playing in Europe and top club careless on promises from the government, what we see are individual devotion to the nation and not because of little benefits that isn't worth a week pay in their respective clubs.

Lol, no it didn’t. Éric Chelle‘s silly comments only made the Super Eagles look unserious. Anyone with brains know there is no such thing as voodoo in football, if there was, Africa should have the record for the winning the highest number of FIFA World Cups.

Such claims makes him unprofessional, losing is always part of the game. Voodoo he claims hasn't taken any African country to play in the World Cup Final, he has the AFCON to settle the scores, another opportunity for Nigeria.

[Agbe]

If I was part of the Nigerian NFF today I will have recommended for the sack of Chelle simply because of this his infamous claims that voodoo was the reason why he was not able to take his team to the world cup. This is the highest level of irresponsibility and not owing up for your mistakes and short coming but trying to shifts blame to others. We all watched the shameful performance that the super eagles played especially in the second half it was a very terrible performance from the super eagles. There is no basis upon which this coach will blame voodoo as his teams inability to qualify.

[Mayor of ogba]

Very funny, given the group that Nigeria was in the qualifiers and the kind of players they have I their ranks, I mean most of the players are playing in Europe's top flight respective leagues and we still struggle to qualify from that kind of a group. It's totally embarrassing on a serious note. Nigeria in the first place wasn't even supposed to be in the category of playing in the play offs, that's were they got it wrong in the first place.

Is that not funny to see a country that have different players in different leagues of the world and still struggling to qualify for the world cup? Well, you don't have to be surprised because this is a pure act of corruption. Who knows if these players have not being paid their wages and have to suffer, go for training and all other things for them to strive to qualify but still does not meet up with the fans expectations. I blame their poor performances on the government not the team and the coach.

The country has failed in all areas of expectations, Nigeria has the best players in Africa if i was told before now that the super eagles won't qualify for the world cup i won't believe such thing, the coach change Victor Osimhen in our match against Dr congo i knew something was wrong, Nigeria is a place of corruption so anything is possible, the country is not at peace most of the players wouldn't also be playing with their full heart i don't just know when this nation called Nigeria will be better.

This is not the first time Nigeria has failed to qualify for the World Cup with the current players playing for Nigeria, so I won't have doubt if someone told me before the CAF World Cup qualifiers started that Nigeria won't book a spot in the World Cup that is taking place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Nigeria coach had no choice but to sub Victor Osimhen off in the Nigeria match against DR Congo because Victor Osimhen was injured in the first half.

[SatoPrincess]

If I was part of the Nigerian NFF today I will have recommended for the sack of Chelle simply because of this his infamous claims that voodoo was the reason why he was not able to take his team to the world cup. This is the highest level of irresponsibility and not owing up for your mistakes and short coming but trying to shifts blame to others. We all watched the shameful performance that the super eagles played especially in the second half it was a very terrible performance from the super eagles. There is no basis upon which this coach will blame voodoo as his teams inability to qualify.

I’m not impressed with Eric Chelle at all but I wouldn’t call for his resignation right now because when you think about it, how many managers have the Super Eagles hired and sacked in recent years. What has been their output and impact? And what’s the chance of hiring a manager that will do better than his predecessor? These are the questions that go through my mind when I think about the managerial situation in the national team. I’d rather stick it out with Eric Chelle than waste money on a new bad decision.

[Wiwo]

I don’t see how the grouping is unfair. Personally I don’t like to encourage this sort of narrative because it doesn’t do our team any good. These sort of reasoning is why Super Eagles manager had the confidence to blame vodoo for Nigeria’s loss to DR Congo.

His Voodoo claim tarnished the image of the Congolese and African football generally.

Lol, no it didn’t. Éric Chelle‘s silly comments only made the Super Eagles look unserious. Anyone with brains know there is no such thing as voodoo in football, if there was, Africa should have the record for the winning the highest number of FIFA World Cups.

The man that mentioned that voodoo thing should be arrested because that statement have hard a physiological effects onnthe team since their already have a wrong narrative of the events at hand why them will they put in they best into the game, this is what we saw, and sure alot of us know this from the beginning when that statement was made.

The only thing i am not surprised for is the fact that the supper eagles lost the game as usual,  instead proving us wrong

The whole supper as a team need reform abd sacking of some officials that are incompetent to deliver making silly accusations and shifting blames

[CryptSafe]

The coach's excuse was such childish rubbish to say. How does it correlate with the current situation at hand? If it were true that voodoo makes victory in sports, why haven't the African countries been able to win the World Cup with it?  He can also say that the
The players were all charmed and bewitched to remain around till the match was over.

When people fail, the next thing is to make excuses for themselves, this is how myopic some people can be, Africa as a continent don't have what is required to win the world cup and even though the have, they don't know how to prepare the players to win the world, i do not believe in theory, everything about football is practical, the excuses will explain things to a very large extent to us that, we have jokers around the football environment, how will someone with such role say such, I think that say a lot about Africans, if we continue like this the entire world of football will keep taking African football unserious.

African teams have the skills and what it takes to win the World Cup, but the truth is that African teams lack the technical know-how to attain that height of achieving such a feat. I wonder if the World Cup is only meant for the West alone or what. I am beginning to be more curious about this stuff of Africa not being able to reach the World Cup finals.

[Rruchi man]

African teams have the skills and what it takes to win the World Cup, but the truth is that African teams lack the technical know-how to attain that height of achieving such a feat.

Lacking in technical know-how? How do you think this can be solved? Do you think the foreign coaches or foreign technical staff can help? Because if that is what you think, I want you to recall that many African teams have contracted the services of a foreign coach and staff to help, but it still has not helped.

Maybe there needs to be better investment in grass-roots football and into football in general in these African countries so that it is actually enticing for people to want to represent their country and put in their best, and also not want to play for other countries. If many African players are actually representing their countries and putting in their best, it will be possible for Africa to lift the World Cup.