2013 AFCON: The Missing Stars

2013 AFCON: The Missing Stars

The 2013 African Cup of Nations, AFCON commenced in South Africa with excitement but not without some notable teams and players.

By Chris Onokpegu

Unlike in the past editions, the 29th edition otherwise known as the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa commenced with the absence of some notable teams and players. The absence is not due to injuries but their inability to qualify for the continent’s most prestigious football tournament.
The most surprising absentee team in the ongoing Confederation of African Football, CAF tournament is the Pharaohs of Egypt. The Egyptian failed to qualify due to the crisis that ravaged the country for over a year. The crisis saw the ouster of their former president, Hosni Mubarak and the termination of their football league which produced majority of their national team players.
Some football analysts argued that if not for the crisis, Egypt would not only have qualified and participated in the 2012 AFCON but won it. Though the Egyptian league has commenced but the players are yet to blend as new players have been injected into the team by their new coach. Egypt also failed to qualify for the 2012 AFCON in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea.
However, Egypt has the records in the continent. They set a new African record, not being defeated for 19 consecutive Cup of Nations matches, since a 2–1 loss against Algeria in Tunisia in 2004. Egypt also set another record, where it became the first African nation to win three consecutive cups joining Mexico, Argentina, and Iran who won their continent cup three times in a row.
Egypt is the first and only country to have won the trophy seven times; apart from the three consecutive wins, they also won the trophies in 1998 in Burkina-Faso; 1986 and 1959 (United Arab Republic) as host, and the maiden edition in Sudan in 1957.
No doubt, Cameroon is the other team that is being missed in the ongoing 2013 AFCON football tournament. The Indomitable Lions, as they are called dominated the AFCON for sometimes. They have so far won the trophies four times in 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2002, equalling Black Stars of Ghana’s record of four trophies.
Just like the Pharaohs of Egypt, Cameroon failed to qualify for the 2012 and the 2013 AFCON in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea and South Africa respectively. The Indomitable Lions last featured in the 2010 edition hosted by Angola where they crashed out in the quarter-final stage.
Some analysts believe that administrative problem which was responsible for Nigeria’s inability to participate in the 2012 AFCON in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea was also responsible for Cameroon’s inability, which saw the self exile of four-time African Footballer of the Year, Samuel Eto’O Fils. His return couldn’t turn the table around as the Lions were eliminated from the 2013 AFCON by unknown, lowly-rated debutants, Cape Verde.
Senegal is another team that will be seriously missed. The Teranga Lions stormed the world in the 1998 World Cup in France where they beat the host country, Le Bleus as France is known, in the opening match. Two years later, they shook the continent when they almost eliminated Nigeria, the co-host with Ghana, in the quarter-final of the AFCON in 2000 and were almost carrying the day before Nigeria’s Julius Aghahowa came to the Super Eagles’ rescue.
While some teams are being missed, players are also not left out. No doubt, four-time African Footballer of the Year, Samuel Eto’O is the biggest star of all. While his “closest rival” on the continent, Didier Drogba, captain of Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, Toure brothers, Kolo and Yaya, and company are in South Africa, he is nowhere to be found due to his country’s inability to qualify courtesy Cape Verde.

Soccer analysts believe that the absence of the 31-year-old, who is Africa’s most decorated player, having been voted as African Footballer of the Year winner in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2010, was responsible for Cameroon’s ouster. Recall that Eto’O has problem with his country’s Football Federation which led to his suspension and he also decided to retire from national duty.
After his spells at Barcelona of Spain and Inter Milan of Italy, he moved to Russian big-spenders, Anzhi Makhachkala where he is adjudged the highest paid footballers in the world, with a reported weekly pay packet of £350,000 (421,000 euros/$563,000).
Other absentee players that would be missed who are emerging as forces in the continent are the duo of Senegalese Demba Ba and Papiss Demba Cisse. The duo, though did not live up in the last AFCON in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, but they are players to watch on television. Their exploits in Newcastle Football Club of England led to the transfer of Demba Ba to big-spending Chelsea FC, also in England in the January transfer window.
He remains one of the deadliest strikers in the league, and made an immediate impact for Chelsea bagging in the goals. At Newcastle, the 27-year-old forward’s prowess helped lift the Magpies to fifth place last season.
Cisse on the other hand, joined Newcastle on a £10 million (12 033 million euros/$16 093 million) deal from German Bundesliga outfit Freiburg and has proved a major hit, scoring 13 goals last term. His goal against Chelsea will ever remain green in the minds of the Blues goalkeeper, Petr Cech
Ba and Cisse failed to join the party when Senegal was kicked out of the 2013 tournament by organisers CAF as punishment for crowd trouble, which flared up at the qualifier against Ivory Coast. Ivorian players and officials were attacked by fans when they saw that the match was not going their way.
The absence of the Lions of Cameroun in the 2013 Nations Cup also robs talented midfielder, Alex Song, who moved to Barcelona from Arsenal last August. He made a name for himself at the 2008 Cup of Nations in Ghana when he was selected for the team of the tournament, an honour he also picked up in 2010 AFCON in Angola.
The absence of Egypt in the 2013 AFCON courtesy the 4-3 defeat to the Central African Republic has also deprived stars as goalkeeper Esaam al Hadary, defender Wael Gomaa and midfielder Mohammed Abou Trika amongst others.
Meanwhile, some players are also absent from the football tournament not because of their country’s failure to qualify but probably because they are not favoured by their coaches.
Topping the list of such players are Osaze Odemwengie, Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Taiye Taiwo, Obafemi Martins, Obinna Nsofor, Chinedu Ogbuke, Sani Kaita, Bamidele Ayenugba, amongst others. They were ignored by Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi.
There are speculations that they were left out of the party to South Africa because of the drop in form while there are allegations that Keshi wants a change of guard from the usual all-foreign-based players to the combination of home-based and their foreign counterparts.
Others believe that he was not impressed with some of the players when they were invited to camp to prosecute some matches. According to a source in the Nigeria Football Federation, who spoke on anonymity, said Keshi dropped some because the players were not showing enough commitment in the Green and White jersey.
Nigeria is not the only country that left out some of their key players; Black Stars of Ghana also dropped some of their stars. Ghana is without the services of Marseille’s star midfielder, Andrew Ayew and striker Yahaya Mohamed, who were both injured weeks before the commencement of the 2013 AFCON in South Africa.
But that is not the case with Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien who is presently on loan in Real Madrid. The hardworking midfielder was left out because of his drop in form recently. Others left out are Sulley Muntari, John Mensah, just to mention a few.
Morocco is also not left out; Queens Park Rangers, QPR midfielder, Adel Taarabt, Arsenal’s striker Marouane Chamakh, on loan to West Ham, and Qatar-based midfielder Houssine Kharja all failed to make the Atlas Lions’ squad.
While, hosts country, South Africa is without their former captain and Everton midfielder, Steven Pienaar. Pienaar called it quit from international during the Nations Cup qualifiers though his country did not participate as it has an automatic ticket as host.