New queens of WAFCON and other stories

African women were the toast of the continental soccer season after the end of the men’s version. Their thrilling championship in Rabat drew record live and TV audiences as a new champion was crowned. Enjoy our coverage of this and other exciting sporting events in this roundup.

This year’s edition of the TotalEnergies CAF Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) made history with first-time winners, the most combatants leading to the most games, and first-time champions as well as a first-time finalist.

Morocco were hosts for the third consecutive time, something that had never happened before. All the matches were held in five stadiums across Rabat and Casablanca, and in a nod to how the men’s World Cup used to be hosted when FIFA cared about the fans’ convenience and pockets, each group held all of their games in one city.

Of the 16 teams, two were debutants. Cape Verde, who could not match the heroics of the men’s side from this year’s World Cup, finished bottom of their group; having said that, they did emulate the men in managing a draw against the side that would be named eventual champions.

Meanwhile, the other newbies had an amazing tournament with a monumental shock defeat for traditional powerhouses and defending champions Nigeria, a reminder that just like investments, history is not a guarantee of future performance.

In a precursor to things to come, all three of The Scorchers’ (Malawi) goals were scored by the Chawinga sisters Tabitha and Temwa, the latter of whom would go on to claim Golden Boot honours as Nigeria went down 2-3.

Not satisfied with topping their group, Lovemore Fazili’s side disposed of first Ghana then Algeria in the knockout stages to put themselves within 90 minutes of ultimate glory.

The other three groups were claimed by hosts Morocco, Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, who all, apart from Les Elephantes who were bested by Algeria at the last eight stage, advanced to the semi-final.

The last four standing, as well as still having a chance of continental glory, automatically qualified for next year’s World Cup in Brazil.

The four beaten quarter-finalists went into a play-off to qualify for the Inter-Confederation play-offs for the same tournament, to be contested through November and December.

Ghana defeated Côte d’Ivoire 2-1, and South Africa beat the Super Falcons (Nigeria), who Cameroon had dealt with in the main tournament thanks to Myriam Nyadjou’s first-ever international goal. That result meant Nigeria will miss out on the FIFA World Cup finals for the first time in their history.

The defender was one of four Indomitable Lionesses (Cameroon) who made the CAF Team of the Tournament.

After a goalless 90 minutes against Morocco, Myriam Nyadjou’s team’s run looked like it had come to an end when, near the death of extra time, the hosts were awarded a penalty.

While faces were covered and sofas hidden all over the Central African nation, they need not worry, for goalie Michaely Bihina saved Fatima Tagnaout’s effort from 12 yards – meaning a penalty shootout was required for the first time at this year’s tournament.

While it was Nyadjou who scored her team’s fourth spot-kick to spark wild celebrations as her side put to bed their WAFCON penalty hoodoo (they had lost their three previous shootouts), the star of the show was undoubtedly the 22-year-old Cameroonian shot stopper who saved three out of four efforts in the shootout, which certainly helped her claim the Best Goalkeeper award.

On the very day that in 1972, there was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the current King of Morocco’s father, King Hassan II, there was going to be a new name engraved on the trophy.

The only question remaining was whether that name was of new Malawi, – the tournament’s top scorers with 12 goals, nine of those coming from the Chawinga sisters – or Cameroon, who had reached the last four for the 11th time at this edition and were playing in their fourth final?

They had failed to even get their name on the scoreboard in any of their earlier title deciders. Unusually, this time, they only qualified once the tournament had been expanded to 16 sides at short notice.

By the end of the first half, that was pretty much answered with the more experienced side 3-0 to the good thanks to an exquisite spinning volley from Naomi Eto that was sandwiched between two Marie Ngah Manga headers.

The Scorchers vainly tried to rescue the situation, but it was just too big an ask, with neither side scoring in the second half, meaning Cameroon had become the lowest-scoring champions ever with eight goals in total. As well as the aforementioned individual goal-scoring and goalkeeping awards, Cameroon also claimed the Best Player award thanks to Monique Ngock.

Sahel countries bid for 2032 AFCON

In the men’s world of AFCON, the three Sahel Allies, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, recently submitted a joint bid to host the 2032 edition.

While Burkina Faso and Mali have thrown the African party before in 1998 and 2002 respectively, and both have reached a final, Niger have a far slimmer history with Africa’s premier international football tournament. They have never hosted before and have only qualified twice, in 2012 and 2013. Over their six games, they have drawn one, losing the rest and only scoring once. Favourites they won’t be.

African soccer stars on the move

If nobody were surprised by Liverpool and Premier League legend Mo Salah exiting Anfield after his turbulent last season, many would have been taken aback by his destination and new club.

After copious amounts of press incessantly linking him with a move to Saudi Arabia, he plumped for Turkey’s fourth-biggest club Trabzonspor.

To give an idea of the gulf between his new and old employers, one is ranked eighth by UEFA, and the other does not make it into the top 150; you can guess which is which.

After his unveiling to an expectant crowd on 6th August, ‘The Egyptian King’ made a fantastic start, scoring seven and assisting twice in his first eight games, including a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of defending champions Galatasaray, to leave him equal at the top of the Super Lig scoring charts.

The Nigerian Gift Orban is also in his first season in Türkiye, playing for Amedspor, who surprisingly lead the league at the same stage in their first ever season in the top flight.

While Salah is in his twilight years and went on a free transfer, Yan Diomande is only 19 and, after a season where he terrorised Bundesliga defences starring for RB Leipzig and had a fine World Cup with Côte d’Ivoire, became the most expensive African player in history when Real Madrid parted with €125m to add him to José Mourinho’s squad.

This could rise by another $15m depending on the performance of the winger, who scored 12 goals and assisted eight in 33 League appearance, including his first hat-trick, becoming one of the youngest players to achieve this in Germany’s top flight.

Another teenager making an expensive move was Morocco’s Ayyoub Bouaddi. Still only 18, he played nearly 100 games for Lille before moving to Manchester City for €95m, and if the two youngsters get anywhere near Salah’s level, they will have had excellent careers.

Sudan’s wandering champions

While Premier League fans of Bournemouth often moan about the 500km-plus trek up to Newcastle, that’s nothing compared to the travel plans a couple of African clubs are currently having to undertake.

Sudanese outfit Al-Hilal Omdurman recently completed a victorious treble they would have preferred not to. That they won three league titles in two years is not the most unusual part of the story – the fact they did it in three different countries is the tale.

For the 2024/25 season, because of their country’s well-documented civil war, along with Al-Merreikh, they joined Mauritania’s Super D1 League, where they topped the table to become ‘honorary champions’.

The two clubs briefly went home, where Al-Hilal won a trophy that they were allowed to have their name on, the Elite League – a short-form event to determine which clubs would represent the nation in continental competitions.

For 2025/26 it was back to Rwanda, where they once again became ‘honorary champs’, winning the ‘title’ by seven points, which could have been more, but they appeared to take their foot off the gas with the league sewn up, hardly surprising given the great distances they travel.

For this last game of the season, they played over 2700km from home. Al-Merrikh finished third after sitting second coming into the run-in. Both teams are playing in Rwanda again this season. Rumours of them being the 39th game in the English Premier League are wide of the mark – so far!

At last Africa to host World Athletics Championship

The World Athletics Championships are taking a step nearer to living up to their name by awarding the 2029 Games to Nairobi, Kenya.

It has previously been held in many of Europe’s finest cities such as Budapest, Rome, Seville, Paris and London, as well as in countries around the globe including but not limited to Japan, China, the US and Canada, but now at last it’s breaking a new barrier.

It will have taken the best part of 50 years, but Africa gets to stage the senior games for the first time in the 22nd edition. The event will be held at the 48,000-capacity Kasarani Stadium.

In the all-time medal table, Kenya sit second (neighbouring Ethiopia are a commendable sixth) only behind the might of the US, with much of that success coming in the middle and longer distance races.

Back in 2021, Kenya bid for the 2025 games using the same stadium but lost out to Tokyo, infrastructure being their downfall. But as one of the joint hosts of AFCON 2027, along with Tanzania and Uganda, this is being taken care of, with the stadium undergoing major renovations.

That, along with the performances of their magnificent athletes, game after game, made it hard for the World Athletics Council to say anything other than, ” We know how good you are on the track; show us you can be just as good off it.

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