Oh no,The European football is struggling at the world cup, Oh, the horror!

[DubemIfedigbo001]

In all those threads created africa getting better and advancing and all, my comments have always pointed out one thing, and that is that African footballer can never be better than the Europeans until we start to maybe copy how those European countries invest so much capture and train their players while they are still very young and vibrant, unlike Africa where a 40 years old man will be playing as under 18 or under 20, it's really absurd and this one reason why African football is struggling, it's all about under-investmemt and under-development, if this things can be fixed, african, has the potential to challenge a European country in a world Cup final.

You are very correct here, such thing is relatable, I recognized this as a very young boy playing under 14 tournament, at the quarter final stage, we met with a team that had lots of older players in it, despite passing height and weight screening, lots of my team players were injured and it was a testimony of the opponents' stronger bones, we later learned some of them were up to 25.

I believe younger talents stopped being encouraged when NGOs and foreign observers stopped visiting the streets to capture raw talents and put them in the path of success. That talent-hunt was how some prominent names in African football like Okocha made it to the world stage. Africa still has a long way to go in football, they are not yet ready to fully challenge European football even in the nearest future.

[Z-tight]

For a while I was rooting for a team from Africa to win cause I like to see underdogs pull through every now and then

That would have been quite a sight, but it wasn't to be, and even though football is unpredictable, i think we are still far off from any other continent breaking Europe and South America's dominance at the World Cup, since inception. If Morocco had at least equaled their 2022 performance in the just concluded 2026 World Cup, i would have said they are edging ever close, especially with the 2030 edition happening partly in their home soil, but they couldn't.

[Odohu]

I believe younger talents stopped being encouraged when NGOs and foreign observers stopped visiting the streets to capture raw talents and put them in the path of success. That talent-hunt was how some prominent names in African football like Okocha made it to the world stage. Africa still has a long way to go in football, they are not yet ready to fully challenge European football even in the nearest future.

Did they really stopped? Have you forgotten the story of Zadok Abu Yohanna, the young Nigerian talent that was discovered in Bauchi State and linked to the Sweedish side AIK last year before he was signed this year by Brighton at. You can read the details of the process in this link. The point is that talents are still being discovered through unconventional ways, although most of the hunt are channel through the academies which is understandable. I also agree with you that a lot is still missing in African football and until the local leagues are fixed, it will be hard for Africa to measure up with Europe and South America.

[Emjay24]

I believe younger talents stopped being encouraged when NGOs and foreign observers stopped visiting the streets to capture raw talents and put them in the path of success. That talent-hunt was how some prominent names in African football like Okocha made it to the world stage. Africa still has a long way to go in football, they are not yet ready to fully challenge European football even in the nearest future.

Did they really stopped? Have you forgotten the story of Zadok Abu Yohanna, the young Nigerian talent that was discovered in Bauchi State and linked to the Sweedish side AIK last year before he was signed this year by Brighton at. You can read the details of the process in this link. The point is that talents are still being discovered through unconventional ways, although most of the hunt are channel through the academies which is understandable. I also agree with you that a lot is still missing in African football and until the local leagues are fixed, it will be hard for Africa to measure up with Europe and South America.

I don't really think they stopped, rather the method of finding the talents changed, now it is more like having someone popular record the talent and put on social media and interested organizations reach out to them, rather than the analogue and conventional pattern of earlier days.

This is still a burden because before the influencers or bloggers agree to repost, they charge high fee of which cannot be afforded by the common person and good talents may be left unrecognized.

On a third note, football academies here have poor welfare. I took the option of taking my son to Academy trainings everyday than having him live in the academy hostels with the poor living conditions. I also agree that a lot of upgrades is needed from the root in regards to sports in Africa before our teams can have a chance to compete well on a global scale.

[Adbitco]

This thread title is deceiving, even after taking a glance at the OP write ups, it still shows the title is deceiving. If it were to be X or any other Meta socials, I would think of it as a click bait. European football has continuously being at the pinnacle of all other continental football bodies. Without any doubt, they still produce the best footballing nations across the world, they over get last 26 years they have won all but 2 of the world cups that shows how well they have been up and doing in the world stage, with Brazil in 2002 and Argentina in 2022 making the only difference in this time interval.

[Fortify]

You have to love how much you can hate the gambling sections' discussions sometimes, and the World Cup is no exception...

So we went from:
Is European soccer on decline? Many big names facing elimination in early rounds
and:
Is the World Cup 2026 a moment of glory for African teams?
to, well, the five stages
African teams throwing away their games in FIFA WC. What is really missing?
and the bottom
What is wrong with Africa teams?

So, beyond the obvious that: What I think is true because the choir besides me shouts the same is not really the reality, let's break down the numbers:

Yet by the time it reached the semi finals there were 3 European countries out of the 4 teams, so much for that theory. There is bound to be more competition when the amount of teams playing increases and that is good in some ways, but maybe bad now that one country would struggle to host this tournament alone like has happened for decades. What may actually be a bit more concerning is this spread out format, nevermind this trashy 15 minute quarter "rehydration" breaks which were basically just advertising jammed into it for more profit and what appears to be favoritism taking place with certain teams/players. There will always be haters who find anything to moan about, but the thread title is clearly wrong here.. hard to understand if it was sarcasm.

[jeremypwr]

Sarcasm detected and it didn't matter as Spain was victorious
For a while I was rooting for a team from Africa to win cause I like to see underdogs pull through every now and then

With the current economics of football, a champion team will never emerge from Africa; it will always be from Europe or South America.
In fact, I cannot recall a champion coming from outside these two continents.
Football holds a prominent place in Europe. As for South America, without Brazil and Argentina, it would be impossible for the other nations to achieve success. Uruguay does have two World Cup titles, but those date back to the 1930s. In the changing landscape of football, it is highly unlikely for a champion to emerge from anywhere other than these two continents.

Yeah the current football landscape strongly favors Europe and South America for many reasons
Until other continents can match those advantages, it's hard to see the World Cup winner coming from somewhere else

[Rubuchi]

This thread title is deceiving, even after taking a glance at the OP write ups, it still shows the title is deceiving. If it were to be X or any other Meta socials, I would think of it as a click bait. European football has continuously being at the pinnacle of all other continental football bodies. Without any doubt, they still produce the best footballing nations across the world, they over get last 26 years they have won all but 2 of the world cups that shows how well they have been up and doing in the world stage, with Brazil in 2002 and Argentina in 2022 making the only difference in this time interval.

only Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay have been the ones competing with the European team in the history of World Cup football competitions but after these three national teams, no team has won the World Cup championship aside from the European national teams. Spain just won the last World Cup we experienced and proves to you what we are saying regarding the European teams. So like you rightly said the heading of the thread  was more like a clickbait but does not really addressing the current realities we are faced with today as far as world football competitions are concerned.