Shortly the battle lines will officially be drawn in the TotalEnergies sponsored CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023.
CAFOnline.com takes a look at some interesting records and statistics of the tournament.
It would be recalled that the first AFCON tournament took place in Sudan in 1957 with only three countries, hosts Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia, taking part in the first tournament in February that year without qualifying competition.
South Africa were invited to the first Africa Cup of Nations tournament in 1957 but their invitation was later withdrawn as a result of the countries apartheid laws. On 10th of January 1957 Egypt defeated hosts Sudan in the first game played at the AFCON winning 2-1 with Raafat Attia scoring the first goal at an AFCON tournament when he opened the scoring for Egypt in their Semi-final win over hosts Sudan in 1957.
in the final of that very first AFCON Tournament, Egypt defeated Ethiopia 4-0 to become the first to win the AFCON Tournament in 1957.
Egypt won the first two AFCON Tournaments in 1957 and 1959 while they were runners up in 1962, losing to hosts Ethiopia in the final.
Cote d’ Ivoire is hosting the Africa Cup of Nations for a second time, after hosting the tournament for the first time in 1984. In that same year eight nations participated, and interestingly five of those countries will be joining the hosts again. They include Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria with Malawi and Togo absent this year.
The Egyptians have won the most AFCON Titles so far taking home seven wins, followed by Cameroon with five, Ghana with four, Nigeria three and the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ivory Coast with two wins apiece.
The Egyptian national team and Ghana have both attained 9 AFCON Finals whike Cote d’Ivoire have appeared in four AFCON Finals in 1992, 2006, 2012 and 2015 without scoring a single goal except for the time they won on penalties after extra time in 1992 and 2015 and lost on penalties after extra time in 2006, 2012 with all four games ending nil nil.
Cameroonian Samuel Eto'o is the leading overall Cup of Nations scorer, notching 18 goals in six tournaments between 2000 and 2010.
Egypt goalkeeper Essam el Hadary became the oldest player at 44 years and 21 days to feature in the tournament when he faced Cameroon in the 2017 final in Libreville as Egypt lost.
Only once in 2013 when South Africa played out a 0-0 draw against Cape Verde has the opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations ended 0-0.
The last host nation to reach the AFCON Finals was Egypt who won the title on home soil in 2006.
Egypt have reached the AFCON Final in five of the last six tournaments that they have participated in winning in 2006, 2008 and 2010 while they were runners up in 2017 and the 2021 edition. They only failed to do so in 2019 as hosts.
Four players Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Ghanaian duo Asamoah Gyan as well as Andre Ayew and Zambia’s Kalusha Bwalya have scored in 6 AFCON Tournaments no players have scored in more editions of the competition than them.
The 2023 AFCON will be the 34th edition of the tournament since its maiden edition in 1957. The tournament has been expanded from a 16 tournament which it has been since 1996 to a 24- team event in 2019 and it's the third edition to have 24 teams participating.
Egypt’s Ahmed Hassan and Cameroon’s Rigobert Song hold the record for the- most number of AFCON participations with each player having featured in 8 finals tournaments in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010. A record which could be tied by Ghana’s Andre Ayew at the next edition.
Ghana’s Charles Gyamfi (1963–1965, 1982) and Egypt’s Hassan Shehata (Egypt 2006–2008-2010) are the only coaches to have won the title three times, Shehata is the only coach to have won the title in three successive tournaments.
Two persons Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary (1959 as player, 1998 as coach) and Stephen Keshi, of Nigeria (1994 as player, 2013 as coach) have won the AFCON as a player and coach.
French man Herve Renard is the only coach to have won the AFCON with two different countries Zambia in 2012 and Cote D’Ivoire in 2015.
Tunisia have qualified for their 16th successive AFCON tournament a run started in 1994. No team has ever managed 16 successive qualifications.
The AFCON trophy has changed three times in history with the first trophy the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, the next trophy was the African Unity trophy, a new trophy which was commissioned in 2001 after Cameroon won the previous trophy for a third time in 2000.
Twelve former African Champions will be making their way to Cote d’Ivoire for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations as the top 15 ranked African teams have all qualified for the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations. Every finalists from the 1984 edition has reached the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the last team to reach the final who have not qualified are 1982 runners up Libya.
From www.caf.com
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