Africa’s time to shine, or will the drought continue ?
Overview
Having been so close to reach the semifinals of the 2010 world cup, no thanks to Luis Suarez, I am optimistic that we may not need to wait much more until one of the African’s sides brings the “crème de la crème” home. Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana are the only African teams to have advanced to the quarter finals but all crumbled for a spot in the semi finals.
The world cup has always been perceived as a foreclosure, the super powers always manage to be in the last four with the exception of first time winners in France and Spain. For the 2018 world cup, I believe that the days of traditional heavyweights dominating the competition are coming to an end.
The African continent has produced some fantastic players who play in some of the best leagues in the world. The continent boasts of players such as Victor Moses for Chelsea, Mo Salah for Egypt and Saido Mane for Liverpool.
The 2022 world cup will see an increase from 32 to 48 nations, as this new format will mostly benefit African and Asian teams from five to nine teams.
Why there is light at the end of the tunnel
If we have been watching Football over the past few years, then we know that anything is possible. The days of the super teams having a guaranteed spot in the final such as Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay and Italy are long gone. Note that I haven’t included Spain, France and England because they each own one World cup. The recent success of Leicester winning the English Premier league in the 2016/17 season means that dreams can come true for the smaller nations.
What even makes it easier, is that unlike a 38 game standard season, the world cup consist of seven matches. We might have a surprise winner in the up coming world cup.
This upcoming week, the footballing world is going on international break for the world cup qualifiers.
Who can qualify this week?
So far Russia, Brazil, Iran, Japan, Mexico and Belgium have qualified which makes it 6 out of a possible 32. Nigeria, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Tunisia will all qualify this week if they manage to win.
It will be an exciting and fascinating upcoming battle to see who will represent the African continent next summer.
Author: Stan McWest
Hi readers, I am Stan Teyingo, McWest. I was born in Togo/Lome, grew up in Kenya/ Nairobi where i spent over 18 years before moving to the U.S for higher education and work. I’m extremely passionate about the African culture. Having traveled to over 15 countries in Africa, I’m proud to say that I have experienced different values and cultures that I now use in my everyday life skills. Today I’m am extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to write positive articles on Africa, so guys have a scroll
